Prime Circle
by Jimmy10.0
Summary: What if Megatron won in Chicago? Seven years since Chicago, deep in the forests of the Northern United States, Arabella Michaels finds a wounded soldier. Taking him in, they make the journey to reunite him with the Autobots. (Spontaneous and accidental OOC'ing might occur) (In Partial Hiatus)
1. Chapter 1

**Sup, guys. Jimmy10.0 here. _Prime Circle_ is my first Transformers fanfiction. I was inspired to do this when I heard 'Prime Circle's' Out of this Place. They're a South African band, I'd suggest checking out their music. The name stuck, but might be changed in the future. This chapter is simply an attempt to see if I should continue the story. So, RnR, ok?**

**I own nothing, not Transformers or Prime Circle (the band). If I did, I would be rolling in dough.  
**

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Soft sunlight filtered through the leaves as a fresh and gentle breeze moved through the bright green grass. The tall trees stood as sentinels to the forest, their great numbers covering the mountains and valleys as streams trickled into rivers. A deer was gracefully grazing close to a babbling brook, her head bent with the assurance of security.

Twitch.

A twig snapped and the deer's head bolted up, immediately looking towards the sound, her ears twitching in alertness. After moments of assessing the situation, she returned to her grazing. The was a faint zip sound before the deer collapsed, an arrow protruding from her chest, killing her instantly. The muffled sounds of footsteps went unheard as the hunter sprinted towards the kill. Knowing the tight time constraint, the hunter made quick work of taking all the necessary parts, letting none go to waste. The hide, the meat, everything that he needed he took stuffing it all into a rather large bag.

Stepping into the stream, the hunter lowered the bloody bag into the running water, making sure to rise off the worst of the blood to help hide his scent. Fixing the bag to his back, he started the trek home.

After walking for about an hour, the hunter suddenly turned left, appearing to turn right into the cliff-face of the mountain. Those with keen eyes would have seen that there was a hidden tunnel there and hidden it stayed. Placing the tools down, the hunter quickly dragged the skin from the bag and briskly walked outside again, moving into a rocky outcrop that would shield him from view.

Placing the hide flat on the ground, he nailed it tightly to the ground, making sure it was stretched and had some contact with direct sunlight. Making sure to leave no trace, he grabbed his tools again, hefted the heavy bag, and plunged into the darkness of the tunnel once more.

An hour of twists and turns later, the hunter emerged in a cavern only a few feet taller than his head. It was a large, round cavern, with various tunnels heading in various directions here and there, cables crisscrossing on the ceiling with what seemed to be a fire pit in the centre. Against the one wall stood a white painted wood cabinet, and the hunter coughed slightly, the smell of fire still strong. Moving over to the table next to the cabinet, the hunter placed the meat on the table before removing a formidable knife from the cupboard, the hunter removed the thick animal skin jacket and tossed it in a safe corner.

The hunched shoulders of a tall woman came into view, her long brown hair a braid running down her back, stopping just below her bra. Sweating, she carved the meat into long strips, taking three quarters of it and placing them on small hooks, hanging them on the cables that hung from the ceiling. Rubbing them with salt, she shifted them over to where the fire pit was and carefully worked at the hinder coals, encouraging them to produce heat once more. A mellow, warm heat settled into the room, slowly curing the meat to prolong its life. She picked up her jacket, the leftover meat before leaving the room once more.

She was freezing by the time she reached her storeroom. This was a large, natural cave that for some mindboggling reason never strayed above 4°Celcius, making it the perfect freezer. There were large steel racks in the cavern, all of them holding a great variety of items. There were bottles upon bottles of disinfectant and various medicines and first aid equipment, there were racks of bars of soap, and large containers of bits and bobs of things that might spoil, of things that may not, and areas to safely put away the raw meat.

Placing the meat into its designated container, she quickly made her way out of the freezing cavern once again. Dull lightbulbs hung at lengthy interval, dimly lighting the corridors. There was also the lazy, near silent swishing sound of the ventilation fans that ensured that she didn't suffocate. She walked, treading softly, making her way to the main chamber.

The main chamber was a large circular room, 50 metres wide and 20 metres tall. A collection of homemade coloured plastic bottle lamps hung randomly from the ceiling. There were a couple of bear rugs on the slight concave floor with a large table in the centre of the floor, surrounded by a small variety of chairs. Against one side was a bed with a thick, colourful crotched blanket lying on top of a fur covered mattress. There were various cupboards against the one wall and just next to on crooked cupboard was a small doorway with a curtain as a door. There was a ticking grandfather clock in the corner, dutifully showing the time.

The other half of the room consisted of various tables with a wide array of tools scattered on them. There was one set of shelves that were painstakingly neat: the weapons. They ranged from light weapons like daggers to the heavier shotguns and rifles. The guns were a last resort in the case of an attack. The wall between the tables and the bed, was another doorway which led into the infirmary, if it even graced that title. It contained a bed, a clean water source, good lights and medical supplies. True, most of it was in the storeroom, but these were for emergencies.

Walking into the curtained room, she moved over to the small constantly flowing stream, washing her hands in the cold water. Rinsing her face of all the sweat, she looked into the mirror. A 29 year old woman stared back at her in the rectangular glass, her brown hair neatly pulled back to keep it out of her dark eyes. There were no laugh lines on her face, she had no reason to smile anymore. A dark scar ran along her left cheek, a reminder of her first couple of weeks in the wilderness. At least she had not been alone then. Sighing, she moved away from the mirror and her memories.

The ticking clock told her that she had three hours before she had to go and check on the smoking meat. She had four hours of daytime left. Deciding that she did not need to go foraging again soon, she walked over to one of the cupboards and allowed herself one simple pleasure: music. Taking the iPod out of the cupboard, she placed it in a docking station and set it on random, just letting it play in the background. Eye of the Tiger started playing as she took her place on the floor, starting with her daily exercise routine. She stretched before strapping a 20kg weight to her back, leaning forward to start her push ups.

One hundred push ups, hanging sit ups and lunges later, she went back to her bathroom, greedily sipping water from the running stream. Wiping her mouth, she made her way to the smoking chamber. Spicing the meat once more, she rechecked the coals before going back to the main chamber. Going into the bathroom area, she stepped over to a large basin like hole in the ground. Plugging the hole, she pulled on a cord, tying it into place. She started stripping as she counted down from 70. 30 seconds later, a stream of water finally started running into the basin. It steamed as it hit the bottom and continued to run. It ran for twenty seconds before she untied the cord once again, leaving to go and get her pajamas while she waited for the water to stop pouring. The stream turned into a trickle before stopping completely as she stepped into the large bathtub. It was just the right temperature. It was quite simple really. The cord was connected to a little gate that redirected a little bit of water from a nearby river to run over a large plain of smooth rock before going through a small filtration system before ending in the tub. The rock would be hot in the late afternoon, thus heating the water as it runs. The result? Warm bath water with just a tell-tale little gate. Laying in the water, she reflected.

Her name was Arabella Michaels, but she had not heard it in years. She was from a small town in the middle of Montana that was safely tucked into the mountains. It has been seven years since… it happened.

She shuddered as she thought of everything that had occurred in those times. There was so much panic in those times. She had barely escaped alive and ran into another person that had been running in the same direction that she had. James Weston. They decided to stick together and make a way of living for themselves so that they could be comfortably hidden from the world.

The first year was the hardest as their bodies had to suddenly build the muscle it had not needed before and as they were hit will all sorts of problems, but with a lot of work, they forced their way through the trouble. By the time the second year had rolled to an end, they had a functional system going. They had electricity that was generated by small machines hidden in the rivers that was enough to run the lights and the barest of appliances. They had dug and opened the channels between the caverns, creating an underground fortress. There were emergency exit tunnels everywhere and great care had been taken to hide the entrances and keep the animals out.

They had made many trips into the surrounding towns to collect whatever forms of supplies they could. Driving two trailered cars in the dead of night with no lights, they would collect things like flint, weapons, soap, containers, wool, tools and anything they could think of from the stores. Hitting a Wallmart was generally the best.

The most important places they stopped, however, were the libraries and any other places that had books. They made sure to collect any books on living outdoors, making your own weapons, clothes, how to tan hides, books on hunting and anything else that could be of any use. As the time passed, the trips needed to the towns lessened to near rarity. Everything was going well and they were happy together, but then the fourth year had rolled around.

That was the year that James died. She only found the cougar when he had almost finished eating him. She killed him with an arrow through his eye and all that she could do for a funeral service was bury the cougar's stomach near a tree and carve a crude sign in the bark. That cougar's hide was the one hanging against the wall, the arrow still lodged in the skull to serve as a reminder that she had gotten revenge for James. She had not eaten the cougar and left it for the wolves. The only thing she had left of James was his class ring and her memories.

Sighing at the morbid tone that her thoughts had taken, she got out of the bath after having used the scentless soap and pulled the plug. Dressing in cotton pajamas, she made her way to the kitchen, where she reheated a stew that she had made the day before. The kitchen was the only room where some attempt at an even floor had been made. They had dug out clay and slathered it on the floor, leaving it more even than it was before.

The kitchen was small, with one wall lined with shelves holding containers, bowls, cups, and a mishmash of kitchen utensils and spices. In the wall next to it there was a wooden door stuck horizontally into the wall. Inside it was a plastic bathtub, also worked into the wall. The tub had ice cold stream water running over it all the time, acting as a freezer for the kitchen. The stove was on the opposite side of the room. This one was gas powered and they had made sure to collect as many gas bottles as they could find. Considering that she was only cooking for one now and only at night, she was not going to run out soon. Cleaning the bowl, she made her way the bed, yawning from the long day's work. Flicking the main light off, only the dim passage lights gave any indication as to where anything is. Snuggling beneath the colourful blanket, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

_ "Hey mom! I'm home!" Arabella called as she walked into the house. "Mom?" She called again as she walked into the t.v. seeing her mother standing in shock at what was showing.  
_

_ "… as you can see behind me, there is chaos as the alien robots are fighting. The marines are running around with machine guns and the heavy artillery. We have been receiving reports that these are the robots involved in the news a not too long ago. It has been confirmed that it is the Autobots that have taken action against the Decepticons, who have threatened to destroy earth. As you can see behind me, there are bots fighting everywhe… Oh, God, what is that?!" The rickety camera swerved to reveal the sky, dark as a humongous metallic structure cut out the sunlight. "Oh, God… I don't know if you can see thi…" Intermittent bursts of static filled the transmission. "… there is a… structure in the… it appea… to be metallic… looks like… planet… wait… disappearing…" The camera's clarity returned. "The portal has been destroyed and the metal structure has vanished from sight. It looks like we might have this thing beat… Hang on…" The news reporter touched her ear piece as her eyes widened in alarm. "Optimus Prime is dead! I repeat! The leader of the Autobot faction has fallen! Megatron has managed to kill him! Oh, Go… Megatron has gained control! I repeat! Megatron has won this war! Everyone! Save yourse…" The footage cut out as a missile slammed into the camera. The silence filled the air as they stood in shock. The tell-tale sounds of jets filled the air as the sounds of bombs exploding followed. The droning became louder._

_ "Mom, I love yo…"_

_ Something exploded and a sharp pole ended her mother's life._


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Me again! So here's the next chappie, and all my love goes out to:**

**xxIbirilainxx & Pink and Black Cherry Blossom for their sparkling reviews. =3**

**On a major note, I have never been to America, so I'm going to be thumbsucking a lot of things. If I get anything grievously wrong, please let me know. **

**As always, RnR, and I'm also looking for a beta reader if anyone is willing. Just let me know! **

**And as always, I own nothing and wasn't planning on making any money from this... yet.**

**Smiles!**

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Arabella slinked silently through the forest, her footsteps making no sound. The air was crisp with a bite, giving hints at the changing of the seasons. She was carrying a bag, a hunting knife and her bow and arrow. After walking for an hour, she reached her 'plantation'.

What she and James did was plants the bushes close to each other and randomly as well to hide any human influence. All the bushes were planted in a kilometre square space and they all displayed proud patches of colourful round orbs, the ripe berries. She had been busy for half an hour when she heard the scream. Sprinting, she pulled removed the bow from her back, notching one arrow into the slot, keeping two extra in her hands for quick reload. Running towards the screams, she heard growls mixing in and found the sources on the other side of a rise.

It was a man trying to fight a fully grown bear and the bear was winning. The bear rose to his full height, roaring as he prepared to land the final blow. The man had cuts and bites all over him, clothes torn and pieces of beard missing. He had no weapons other than a pathetic spear.

Flash backs flew through her mind, and she forcefully threw them aside. Taking a steadying breath, Arabella crouched, took aim, and fired. The arrow flew true, burrowing through the skull and through its brain. It collapsed in on itself, as though it had simply deflated. The second arrow was already notched and pointed at the man when he saw her after a brief search to find out where his saviour came from. His hands shot up immediately and then he crumbled in pain.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm not gonna hurt you!" the man wheezed. Arabella replied in a crisp voice.

"Who are you and what are you doing out here?" Her voice was like ice.

"My name is William Lennox. I escaped from working from the Decepticons three weeks ago and I just picked a direction and started walking." Her bow lowered. She looked him. His general appearance spoke the truth. This man was tall, mussed brown hair with flecks of grey graced his hair. His beard was long and grizzled, with more grey than any other colour. His attire was too pitiful to describe and barely hung on what was left of his frame.

"Are you alone?" She called out. He nodded. Arabella's bow lowered.

"How hurt are you?" She called out.

"I think I have a dislocated shoulder, broken arm, strained muscles, twisted ankle, bruised ribs and cuts everywhere." She sighed. Blood was an easy thing to track. She walked down the embankment and closer to him.

"Let me have a look." The cuts were bleeding heavily and she couldn't see them properly under all the dirt. She shifted over to his shoulder, the arm hanging uselessly from the socket. "Look straight ahead, and tell me about yourself." She instructed as she gently touched the skin through the thin material.

"Well, I used to be married with a beautiful daughter na…" A painful scream resounded as the shoulder was clicked back into place. He looked at her with a shocked look. "Distraction. Brilliant tactic." He retorted. She looked him dead in the eye.

"Look, I don't have the things I need here to fix this. I will have to take you back to my base." He seemed to perk at the statement. "However, there are things that I need to do before we can do that. Sit tight for me." She tore the leftover shirt from him, slipping him her jacket to keep him warm. Grabbing two straight sticks, she made a splint for his arm and a sling. Picking up a large, forked branch, she cut off pieces to make a crutch. "Stay here. I have a local family to feed." Grabbing the large hunting knife, she cut off one of the large rear legs of the bear, dragging it off into the distance. After walking for five minutes, she stopped near a small cave. Dropping the carcass, she looked up to see the female wolf with her two cubs.

"Here. Follow the trail if you want more." She immediately turned and returned the way she came, briefly looking over her shoulder to see the mother and the cubs digging into the meat. She made her way back to Will and saw that he had collected a torn backpack and a water bottle. Moving to a nearby pine tree, she cut down one of the bushy branches and tied it with a small length of rope to her waist, effectively dragging it over her track as she walked. "Alright, grab your stuff. You are going to walk right in front of me so that I can cover those bloody tracks you are leaving everywhere. Get moving."

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The progress was slow and the trip took two hours. When they were starting to get close, she got rid of the branch and blindfolded him.

"Nothing personal, I'm just not taking chances." She had explained when she had received slight protest. She steered him for the rest of the way and only took the blindfold off when they had reached the infirmary. Helping him out of the jacket, she quickly ran back to the kitchen to get the water that she had set to boil when they had come in. Finding it a suitable temperature, she added Savlon and started cleaning the wounds. Letting him lay down on the bed, she gave him a sponge bath and shaved his head and beard.

Sometime during the process he had fallen asleep, so she made quick work of binding the wounds after applying a generous layer of honey to them. The honey acts like a disinfectant and also encouraged cell regeneration. He was lucky. His arm wasn't broken, but it was fractured. Placing a blanket over his sleeping form, she went to the store room to collect the box of men's clothing James had left behind and one of the several ice-packs that they had collected over time.

In a constant state of embarrassment, she had managed to dress him in the clean clothes in his unconscious state. Putting the ankle on the ice pack, she made sure that he would be snug before she left. Before she did, though, she left a note telling him not to explore and where the bathroom was if he needed it.

She had decided to preserve the berries with her dwindling supply of sugar and glass jars. They were great for a quick boost of energy when you needed it. After making all the necessary arrangements, she set the pot to simmer, and took some of her deer stew out of the fridge to reheat for the two of them. Pouring generous helpings of the thick broth into bowls, she made her way back to the infirmary to check on William. He had just started to wake up when she came in.

"How are you feeling William?" She asked, rather awkwardly. He smiled slightly.

"I haven't felt a bed this soft in years. And call me Will." He replied. Arabella blushed.

"Sorry. It's been a while since I've had any human contact. My name is Arabella, by the way."

"Ah. Was wondering when I was going to know what my saviour's name was." She smiled again.

"How's your appetite? Would you want to try eating something?" she asked, offering him a bowl of the steaming broth.

"With something that smells that good, who am I to say no?" He replied with a smile. Helping him sit up, she handed him the bowl. He struggled, his previously dislocated arm still sore, with his other wrist sprained. She immediately placed her food on a nearby table.

"Here. Let me help." Taking the bowl and spoon from him, she fed him in small bites to help everything go down smoothly. One empty bowl later, she helped him lay back down again, before taking her cooled broth. "Tell me about yourself, Will." She asked again.

"Well, as I said, I am William Lennox. I used to be a General in the Military before Megatron took over. I had a beautiful wife named Sarah, and a gorgeous daughter, Annabelle. She would've been 10 by now." He told her, a hollowness haunting his voice.

"I had been part of the special task force that worked with the Autobots fight the Decepticons. When Sentinal Prime betrayed us, it was the blow that ended the war. I was taken as Starscream's personal pet slave. How I hated it. I never found out if my family was still alive, if anyone I knew was still alive. It was horrible not knowing." He paused for a moment, his eyes hazy from the memories.

"They shipped us all up here two months ago. Or, nearby, at least. The other slaves where disappearing in groups, so it didn't take us long to figure out that these where the execution grounds. With a couple of weeks of planning, I snuck past their defences and just… ran. I ran and ran until I passed out. Luckily it was in a covered area. Ever since then I've just been running in the same direction every day. I was lucky if I found water, and made use of the little I remembered from basic survival tactics until I was attacked by that bear. And you know the rest from there."

She chewed slowly as she let his story sink in, pondering her current situation. She was quiet for a few moments longer before his voice interrupted her thoughts.

"And you? What's your story?" He asked gently, still clutching the bowl in his hand. Sighing, she leaned forward, took the empty bowl from him, stacking it on top of hers before placing it on the small table.

"Not much to tell, really. They came, annihilated everything and I ran. I barely survived the first two weeks. That's when I found James. James Weston. Together we got this entire setup up and running, him more the brains and me more the brawn. Well, not really. We were well balanced.

"We would do raids in the nearby towns to get what we needed, you know, hit a Wallmart or a camping store, but mostly we went for the libraries. The information never goes out of date, and we just grabbed anything that would be useful.

"We were doing good. Had a nice system up and running soon, but ****, the first couple of months were tough. Between the two of us, we figured things out pretty quickly though. He was like a brother to me." She sighed, memories bubbling up from all the jokes they had shared, the fun times, the times they actually _laughed_. And good Lord she missed him.

"It was in the fourth year that it… happened. We had gone separate ways for our foraging that day. I was on hunting detail. I was tracking a deer when I heard it." The crunching sounds. The sick, crunching sounds of bones breaking. "It sounded like some predator had maybe caught the deer I was tracking, but the…" she bit back her lip, the memory raw in her mind. "strips of cloth everywhere, the knife on the ground, the backpack, the han…" she stuttered, tears threatening to spill.

"Before I knew what I was doing, there was an arrow through the cougar's skull. I'm still not sure how I got that right." She paused, taking a breath to calm herself. "I skinned the bastard and buried what I could. The best thing I could do for a grave was a hole in the ground. No proper ceremony, no nothin'." Anger bubbled carefully beneath the surface. "At least I still have the bastard's fur. Arrow still attached. And from there on out, I've been on my own, surviving. At least I was well prepared when it did happen. There were no major incident from there on out. One run in with a pack of wolves, but that was sorted quick." She paused.

Soft snores had filled the room. She had been too involved with her storytelling to have taken notice of the ex-general falling asleep. Running a hand over her head, she looked at the sleeping soldier.

"Lennox, what am I going to do with you?" She sighed before leaving, turning off the light as she slipped out. It was close to midnight, and she simply got into her PJ's and slipped between the covers, pondering her situation before drifting off to sleep.

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**Just a by note, there is only, like, 5% of the world's population still alive. Just to give you a scale of the loneliness. Still, review and let me know if I've missed something!.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again!**

**This chapter is a little shorter than they usually are, but bear with me, they will get better :)**

**Thanks to Sunstreaker's Squishy and sweetea1 for their reviews. They make me so happy :3**

**I'm still looking for a BETA reader. I do edit the living daylights out of my stories, but I like second opinions, and I do think my writing can be improved. So if you are willing, could you let me know? Pwease?  
**

**Onwards with the story!**

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"Ok, so here's what we are going to do: we are going to get your body back into tiptop shape and get you up to speed on how to survive in the wild, unless you have any better ideas." She stated the next morning as they were eating a breakfast mush that consisted of mashed up everything, mainly fruit. Will was sitting upright in the bed, back against the stone wall. He wiped at his face with a scarred hand.

"During my lovely stay with the Decepticons," he started, sarcasm thick in his voice, "they kept on complaining about the Autobots when they thought we couldn't hear them. Apparently they fled to the Rockies, in a tiny town called, um… Slithers? Smothers? Hell I can't remember anymore."

"Smithers." She corrected him. "So? What about it?" He leaned closer.

"If we get there, we will have the protection of the Autobots." He stated. She nearly face palmed.

"Just, stop. Just…" She took a moment to gather her thoughts and started her counter argument. "First of all, the Autobots and the Decepticons are fighting each other. Always have been, always will be, unless some miracle takes place which, quite frankly, ain't gonna happen." He was about to retort, but she cut himself off before he could say anything.

"Second, if they know the Autobots are in Smithers, they **KNOW WHERE THEY ARE**. That means they will be more than willing to attack them, and probably do on a regular basis. They don't know where we are, or that we even exist, therefore they will leave us alone, leaving us safe from attacks." The logic was so simple a baby could understand it, but it needed to be stated anyway.

"Third, Smithers is at least a three day trip away if we are driving. Now, seeing as we can only drive at night, the time we can travel is limited extremely, and that lengthens the trip at least two more days. Not to mention the fact that we will be driving without headlights, so we will barely able to see where we are going. I'm also not sure whether or not I have the fuel to make that trip." He was about to try and cut in again, but he was interrupted once more.

"Fourth, it's fall. By the time you are healthy and able to take care of yourself, the roads are going to be covered in snow. And I'm not talking one or two inches, either. I need to stock up for winter, and quite dramatically now if you are stuck with me. Simply put, I have no time in any way, shape or form to make the preparations to make a trip like that. So I'm sorry Will, unless you have some amazing plan you'd like to drop right now, I'd suggest forgetting the whole idea and learning to survive." Will looked deflated.

"It's just…" he faltered a little "They might still be alive. Sarah and Annabelle, they might still be alive." His voice cracked as tears nearly brimmed his eyes. She sighed as her voice took a gentler tone.

"I'm sorry Will. I really am, but I simply can't in any form or way make that happen right now. We can talk about it when spring rolls around again. Deal?" It was all she could think of at that time. He seemed quiet. "Think about it this way: If they are still alive, they are being protected, and while you are here, you are learning to take care of them without being able to go to the corner store and pick up milk and bread on the way home, ok?" He smirked at the analogy she had used. He nodded dejectedly, still disappointed that he wouldn't get to see them as soon as he would have liked.

Getting up, she walked over to the particularly large book case standing in the infirmary. Grabbing a selection of books, she tossed them over to him.

"As your doctor, I am confining you to bed rest and I would suggest reading these to pass the time, and try to remember what is actually on the pages." He smirked a little, reading the book titles. She stalked her way out of the room, grabbing her gear before putting her head back in the doorway.

"I'm off to stock up for winter. I will be back in a couple of hours." She pointed at a large container of berries and the more that was standing next to a single granola bar. "You can have those for lunch later. You know where the bathroom is." She turned away to leave before spinning on her heel and looking straight back at him. "I repeat my statement of not going to explore these caves on your own. You are going to get lost, and I will not waste my time looking for your sorry ass, got it?" She stated, finger pointed at him to stress the point. He nodded in agreement before she stalked off, her footsteps silent in the long passageways.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

Today was simply not her day. She couldn't find any deer, she nearly had an encounter with a pack of wolves, and she had not packed a sufficient lunch. Sighing, she stood close to the edge of the large waterfall in front of her. It was actually a small waterfall followed by a huge one. The river was big enough for it to not freeze over when winter rolls around. The view was simply majestic. She had hoped that from this high viewpoint she could spot any animal movement, but she came up with nothing.

As she was standing there, she heard the whine of jet engines. Turning, she cursed the loudness of the waterfall for her inability to hear the jet earlier. Before she could turn to run, the Decepticon landed in front of her, red optics focused solely on her.

"Well, what do we have here? A fleshy where it doesn't belong. What's wrong, glitch, did you get lost?" The seeker mocked condescendingly and took a step forward. Arabelle reacted accordingly, taking a step back, only to realise she was on the edge of the cliff and the waterfall as her foot felt only nothingness below it. Flailing wildly, she fell into the churning water.

She bobbed sporadically, her arms still flailing all the way. The seeker watched in morbid fascination as she was flung closer to the edge. Finally grabbing a shred of sense, she tried to swim away from the ginormous final drop in front of her to little avail. Screaming, she fell over the edge. The seeker stepped closer to the edge only to see her body smash to pieces at the bottom, the body floating limply down the raging river. Laughing, the seeker jumped, transformed mid-air, and flew off, all thoughts of what just occurred stowed in the back of his mind for a laugh later.

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**Hate me yet? Hehehehehe. The story dictated ending here. It could not be persuaded.  
**

**As always, RnR! :3 and cheerio!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Me again! :3**

**So, yay for me, my holidays have just started, (whoot whoot), I'll be able to put a little extra into this. I'm still looking for a Beta reader to help me improve my writing, so if you know of a willing person, let me know, k?**

**And thanks for the reviews! They make me feel all squishy inside!**

**As always, I own neither the Transformers franchise nor the band Prime Circle. If I did, I would be rich.**

**:3**

**RnR pwease!**

* * *

To say Arabella was cold, was an understatement. She was freezing. Stumbling through the cave system, she finally found a familiar looking string of lights, straggling through the halls in search of dry clothes. She was barely able to do anything due to the hypothermia that was starting to set in. Struggling her way into dry clothes and into her bed, she didn't notice the warm body that had climbed in with her before passing out.

Will had heard her when she came back due to the sound of squelching shoes and teeth chattering. In her hypothermia induced state, she didn't notice that he had gently directed her towards his bed that was already warm. Grabbing another blanket, he tossed that over her before getting in with her. It was basic survival training to stop a person from freezing due to hypothermia. He didn't use the correct way of stripping down to the skin to do it, but soon her shivering stopped as she fell into deep sleep, her body still pressed tightly to his.

Will hanged on to her, a bit uncomfortable at the near alien feeling of having a woman's body so close to him. In the camps they had always been separated, men in one hanger, women and children in another. Pulling her closer he finally drifted off to sleep as well.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The hours passed swiftly and soon Arabella was waking up. She was lucky. She got into a confrontation with a decepticon and would probably come off with a cold. It, on the other hand, thought she was dead. She smirked when she had thought back to how she escaped.

It was an ingenious idea that started as an accident in their third year of survival. James had accidently fallen into the waterfall and Arabella had jumped in to try and save him. They both failed, but when they went over the edge, they fell into a cave. Tying a rope to the one rock to find their way back, they explored and found that one of the tunnels led back to their caves and took precautions accordingly.

They got shop mannequins.

Dressing them up in their typical hunting gear, they placed several close to the entrance, so that when you are in a spot of trouble, you fall into the cave and you push out a mannequin that breaks into a million pieces at the bottom. They never had to use it before today and she had been thankful for it being there when she had needed it. There were still five more mannequins left should they need to use it again.

She had never actually expected to use it, but was endlessly thankful for it. She was actually able to hear the Seeker step closer to the edge, and laugh as he flew up and away. She amazed that he fell for it.

She shifted and realised she wasn't alone in her bed. Actually opening her eyes, she noticed she was not in the main cavern. Instead, she was in the infirmary, Will's bony figure trying to lend her the warmth he could afford. She smirked. She would have probably have died in her sleep if it weren't for him.

Shifting out of the bed, she got up and moved through to the kitchen, still wrapped in her blanket, heating a thick chicken soup she had been able to make earlier in the year. She would probably never be able to make another pot like this one, as the ingredients were simply strokes of luck. Making her way back to the infirmary, she woke Will with the steaming bowl of soup.

"Here. Chicken soup is rumoured to heal all illnesses." She stated sagely as she sat in a blanket wrapped pile. He rubbed his eyes, taking the soup. Sitting up blearily, the soup made contact with his tongue.

"HOT! HOT! HOT!" He sputtered. Arabella laughed.

"Careful. It's hot." She stuttered out between laughs. He gave her a death stare before blowing on the soup before eating it.

"So, what happened out there?" He asked. She simply took another spoonful.

"Tell you later. Chicken soup is best warm." She stated before taking another spoonful. The thick soup was actually quite filling. It warmed her from inside out, and with the aid of the blankets, she knew she was in the clear from any bug in the foreseeable future. When she had stacked their bowls, she told him what happened.

"So that's the story. I have enough food here to go underground for 5 months at the moment. I'd suggest staying inside for at least a week before going foraging again, just to be safe. But as soon as we have your body nourished again, I'm putting you through such a strenuous training that you are going to hate me more than you hated your first drill sergeant." She promised him. He scoffed.

"Please. There was no drill sergeant worse than Stephens." He swore. She cocked an eyebrow at him, in an 'Oh, really?' manner. He took note of it and said nothing. He knew there was no one that could have been worse than Master Drill Sergeant Stephens.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

He took it all back.

There was a drill sergeant worse than Stephens.

A three weeks after their conversation, she struck without warning. He had been dreaming of a laughing Annabelle running through a meadow when the dream was ripped from him in the most dramatic fashion.

By an air horn screaming next to his ear.

He had been dragged through the worst three weeks of his life. He had to run, no, _sprint_, all the way from the main chamber to the storage room and back. Walking, that took 15 minutes. He had to sprint that several times every morning and had to do it with weights. Every day, the weights would become a little heavier.

After the morning sprints, he had to do other body exercises, like push ups, sit ups, and good Lord knows what else. He lost count with how many he did, trying his hardest to please his slave driver.

Calling Arabella a slave driver was not a mild understatement, but a serious one. Every time he wanted to give in, she made him see reason to do ten more. They usually came in threats and they all had the same theme.

If he couldn't do this, he would never see his family again, or protect them.

His overall diet was devoid of meat, consisting only of fruit, vegetables and water. He was allowed a 15 minute breather to get his heart rate back to normal. During the first three days, he was starting to question his manhood when she not only did them with him without fail, but with the 20kg weight strapped to her back the entire time. Not only that, but she added weight to hers as well. He pushed these thoughts out of his mind and replaced them with thoughts of his family.

The exercising only happened until 9 in the mornings, considering the fact that she dragged him out of bed at 5 every morning. The rest of the day was filled with, '_Survival 101'_ as she coined it, and weapons training afterwards. She was an excellent teacher. She would demonstrate where possible and he tried to absorb as much as he could. The session was always split into three sections: shelter, medical and foraging.

She would start by giving him a scenario and asking him what he would do in said situation. After he gave it his best shot, she would correct him where necessary. She would be quite harsh about his mistakes, because, quite frankly, one mistake and he could die and probably will die. But she did something he had never seen before. She made him teach her what she had taught him by pretending that she had never heard the stuff before.

It made him understand everything, allowing him to figure out for himself why he needed to do what he had too, and also made everything stay up there longer. Every day she would build on what she had told him the day before. His grasp for surviving in the wild grew quickly, as did his weapon handling skills.

He was a crack shot with a gun, no doubt about it, but something simple and silent like a bow and arrow? Not a chance. But teach him, she did. She taught him how to make his own bow, his own arrows, his own quiver to hold them, his own spear, his own rope and leather, and most importantly, how to properly use all of the above.

By the end of the third week, muscle mass had proudly sprouted over Will's previously thin frame. Sure, he had been buff in the Army, but now? He was twice as ripped, simply from building the muscles he knew he would need in the future. His endurance has tripled, as had his mental capacity for surviving in the wild. It was time to put his skills to the test.

"Come on, Will!" Arabella called, grabbing her quiver and bow. "We're going hunting!" They needed to stock up for winter, and they needed to do it fast.


	5. Chapter 5

**Holla, my peeps! Jimmy10.0 here, cruisin' on her holidaaaaay! Well, not really. I've become the designated house maid. :P But at least I get paid!**

**Anyhoo, next chapter's up. Read, review, enjoy, and if you are willing to Beta me, PLEASE let me know!**

**And thanks to my adoring readers and your reviews! They are always lovely and welcomed!  
**

**Onwards!  
**

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A small herd of deer where gracefully grazing on what has left of the grass, settling to chew the bark on the trees as well with some effort to bulk up some more before the first snow came. There were three does and one buck sprouting proud antlers for the world to see. They were gently and noiselessly moving about, nibbling here and there on what little vegetation they could find.

Two dull thuds graced the air with their presence before the two does fled, startled immensely by the sound of the buck and other doe collapsing to the ground. The two hunters ran forward, each towards their fallen animal.

"Really? You went for the buck? That thing weighs twice as much as a doe does." Arabella stated as she expertly slit a gash into the doe.

"Means it carries more meat." Will stated in reply. Arabella sighed.

"Fine, but you are dragging the carcass back, not me." And drag he did. She was skipping quite happily with her load of meat, showing off the lighter load and the fact that the extra training she did with Will had been paying off. He was glaring daggers into the back of her head.

It had been the third time they had been hunting, and the first time Will FUBAR'ed the deer he managed to snag. Arabelle had to step in and stop him before he ended up looking like a murderer, but at the rate they were going, they were going to make it for winter. Will still had pain every now and then, but it was not as bad as it used to be.

They were in a frenzy to prepare for winter. They had large barrels of food in the storeroom. She taught him how to make beeswax candles and they sat and did that at night. One half of the meat they smoked, and the other got turned into stew. She tried to be careful with the gas. Sure, there was a single room dedicated to the large bottles, but it didn't change the fact that once that was finished, it was finished.

Earlier that year she had tanned the hides of two wolves that had attacked her and was using them to make a winter coat for Will. She was using an antique sewing machine that was paddle powered. It was a rare find and was great because she didn't need to use the strained electricity supply to power it. Will would sit and read from the books while she worked on the coat, getting up occasionally to be fitted.

"'Belle, why are we stocking up so much for winter? Can't we just go out and hunt whenever we wanted to?" He interrupted her thoughts as they were still carrying the meat home. She sighed a little at his lack of understanding.

"Because there is so much snow up here that it completely covers the entrances. We will be locked in, quite literally, and there will be fewer animals as most of them will have migrated to warmer areas. It will also burn calories we can't afford to lose running around in snow and besides," She shifted the meat to look over at Will with a smile, "it's niiiiiiiiice and snuuuuug and waaaarm…"

"I GET IT! Just stop!" Arabelle laughed. She found out Will hated it when someone baby talked him. She did it periodically just to work on his nerves. They were starting to get close to the side entrance.

"Now shift those lazy bones! We're almost there! Then big boy Will can have his afternoon nap!" She shouted to him in a baby voice, before sprinting off laughing as an enraged Will shouted, giving chase.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"Will, have you decided what you are going to be doing for winter?"

It was late evening, and the pair had just had supper. Will looked up from the book he had been reading and looked at her with a frown.

"Sorry, what?"

"What are you going to do to keep you busy? You have to do something to keep yourself occupied, or else you kinda go CRA-HAZY!" She shouted, splaying her arms out with a twisted expression on her face to get her point across. Will stared at her like with a look of mock horror before relaxing into the answer.

"I didn't really think of that. What do you get up to?" He asked, eyes raised in a searching manner as he scratched his chin. Arabelle just pointed into random directions.

"Knitting, crotchet, crotchet, wood work, drawing and read. A little bit of whittling, but that didn't turn out to well." She winced internally at the memory of the horribly misshapen figures that died merciful deaths as fire kindling. "Other than that, exercise and sleep." She gasped excitedly. "WE HAVE BOARD GAMES!" She was hopping in her seat. "Now I have someone to play against!" Her smile was rather wide. Will laughed.

"Sure thing, kiddo, but just remember: They do get boring after a while." She shrugged.

"Eh, that's something I can live with. Tell you what, I'll teach you a bit of woodworking so you can learn to carve your own bows." Will scowled a little.

"Your bow is a carbon fibre bow with elastic string. Are you going to tell me you made that too?" He asked a little miffed.

"Nope. My bow was a lucky find, and before I found it I had to hand carve them. THUS, YOU SHALL LEARN TO CARVE YOUR OWN BEAUTIFUL BOW!" She stated dramatically. "Even though I already taught you how to." Will smiled slightly.

"Ok, fine. But what am I going to do after that?"

"Heck, I don't know. Whatcha wanna do?"

"I don't know. Whatcha wanna do?"

"I dunno. No' don't sta' tha' again!" She shouted in a mock cockney accent. They burst out laughing. "Jungle book, for the win!" They sat for a moment more.

"If you want, you could clean all my guns. I have no idea how to." She shrugged, pointing over her shoulder at the neatly displayed weapons.

"Seriously? You have all these and you don't know how to use 'em?" She shrugged.

"James and I just grabbed the guns and ammo. We didn't have a cooking clue about how to use them."

"Tell you what: you teach me how to make a proper bow, and I'll teach you everything you need to know about these bad boys." He held out his hand. She smirked.

"Deal." She leaned forward and slapped his open palm. She turned back to the blanket that she had started crocheting as he turned back to the book. "How'd you meet Sarah?" He leaned back, smile on his face as he placed the book on his chest.

"Party at a club. It was one of my best friends 21st, and we were planning on getting sloshed." Arabella snuggled into a more comfortable position. "The music was loud, and I was nearly getting blinded by the strobe lights. And I look across the floor, and there's this beautiful girl. Gorgeous blonde. Leggy too. So I've already had a few, and I decided to try my luck with this babe. But instead of walking around the crowded dance floor, I decided to beeline through it, drink still in my hand." She started giggling. This could not end well.

"So I'm swimming my way through, barely not spilling everything everywhere when this brunette slams into me, and the drink goes flying…" He paused as Arabella gasped "and landed all over her hair and her dress and ruined her makeup…" Arabella started giggling. "And the first thing out of my mouth was, 'I see I got you wet.'" Arabella started howling with laughter.

"You didn't!" She shouted, still laughing.

"You bet I did!" he laughed "The look on her face was priceless, and then I realised what I had said. I was sputtering apologies left, right and centre. Turns out she had also been invited to the party, so as an apology, I asked her out to coffee, and the rest is history." Arabella's laughs finally calmed down.

"That's actually quite sweet. I hope for your sake she's still alive."

"Yeah, me too." He paused, and looked straight at her. "What about you? Any boyfriends in your history?" She paused briefly before returning to her work, not looking at him as she talked.

"There was this one guy. Definition of hot. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes, hot as heck. Just as sweet too, the perfect gentleman. Always so polite, too. I couldn't believe the catch I had gotten with him. We were together for months. Months! And boy, my heart went wild." She frowned as she continued.

"We were going to get married, get a beautiful house, have four kids and a cat. I don't really like dogs." She related in a wistful voice before pausing again, rethinking everything. "We were going to be stable financially and grow old together, sitting on some porch somewhere where we could watch the sun set each evening. I told my heart no, to not think like that, but it did, anyway. And then one day, I got the shock of my life." She set her work down on her lap as she stared off into the distance, lost in the memory.

"I had come for a surprise visit. It had been our eighth month anniversary that day and his mom let me go upstairs. I quietly opened the door, and lo and behold! There was my best friend!"

"No…" Will said softly. She continued.

"She was nearly only in her underwear, he was on top of her, and they were playing tonsil hockey like it was the finals."

"Ouch. What did you do?"

"Popped a cap in his ass." She stated in a gangster voice. He stared at her, dumbstruck. "Nah, just kidding," she laughed "But I did go ape on them. Turns out they had been going at it for five months already. Needless to say, I didn't talk to them again. I was never the same. Neither was his truck. Or his reputation." She started giggling "Or her designer clothes, or their school careers." She was laughing out loud now. "Assembly was never that much fun ever again!" Will laughed.

"Do I want to know?"

An odd pause hung in the air.

"Nope."

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**'Kay guys. I'm going to be initiating a bit of a time shift, because really, hibernation is BOOOORING! As always, RnR, please! :3 **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! Happy delayed Thanksgiving to the Americans! Everyone else… Sorry, got nuthin'. Except for the next chapter :3**

**I know it's a bit early for Christmas, but seriously, hibernation is BORING! So I skipped a little and will probably do it again for over the New Year, and most of January.**

**sweettea1 – Thanks :3 Glad you liked it **

**Sunstreaker's Squishy – There is method to the madness, don't you worry ;) **

**I'm still looking for a Beta. People are just saying they are busy :P . Anyway, if I owned the Transformers franchise, which I don't, I'd be rich, RICH! Muhahaha! But I don't, so, here I am. ONWARDS WITH THE CHAPTER!**

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They had been boxed in for weeks already. A few of the air vents had gotten clogged up, but most of them were still working fine. The caves were snug themselves, the heat evenly distributed overall. There was a portable furnace in the main cavern, occasionally lit to help warm things up a bit. The weeks had been relatively uneventful. It was relaxing to Will; he for the first time in years was not required to haul heavy crates of goodness knows what for mercilessly long hours while keeping an eye on your back to not get killed. You could say there was still a bit of that paranoia still in his systems, but it had been mostly worked off by now.

Will woke slowly, sweet sounds drifting through the edge of his consciousness as he tried to swim his way out of the lethargy that still sat on his mind. His slow brain finally made the connection that the sounds were music and someone singing. He snuggled a bit deeper into the mattress, intent on getting as much sleep as he could before he had to get up and face the day.

Wait. Music and singing.

He bolted upright, the speed of his soldier mind kicking in. Kicking off the covers, he moved into the main cavern, and his jaw dropped to the floor.

There was tinsel everywhere, with glass ornaments hanging from various nooks and crannies on the walls. Arabella was standing on a stepladder, singing softly as she continued hanging the ornaments.

"Deck the hall with boughs of holly, falalalala, lalalaway…" It was a Neil Diamond Christmas carol album that was playing. Will stood speechless, gazing with wide eyes around the room.

"Wha… Wha…" Will's brain had officially stopped working. Arabella heard him, turning to him with a wide smile.

"Morning Will! Merry Christmas!" She cheered merrily, tossing her arms slightly in the air. She noticed the dumbstruck look on his face. "I don't normally do much for Christmas, but hey, I've got you around, so, heck I thought, 'why not?'" She turned back to hanging the decorations. "So, anyway, today is the 20th of December, so that gives you four days to Christmas eve. I usually just stuff my face, but we could do presents if you want. Also, I," she turned to look at him, and stopped. "Will? What's wrong?"

The tears were streaming down his face, his body shaking in silent sobs. She hopped off the ladder and came to stand in front of him, placing her hands on his shoulders, peering into his unfocused eyes.

"Mom… M-Mom used t-to listen to N-Neil Diamond as sh-she put up the… the decorat-tions an-and Dad w-would set up the Chr-istmas tree. M-My sisters w-would come with th-their hus-bands and k-kids an-and we'd have this h-huge f-feast on Chr-Christmas day." He sputtered out between the sobs. Arabella understood and pulled him into a hug.

He was homesick for a family he would never see again, for traditions he would never truly be able to repeat. She just held him until he finally calmed down.

"If the memories hurt, I could take them down, if you want." She offered softly. He shook his teary eyed head.

"No. I want to have a Christmas, even if it's just sitting in this boring old cave with you." She laughed at him.

"Hey! Don't hate on the cave! She's what's keeping you safe right now!" They shared a laugh and internally Arabella was relieved that the tension was broken. "Come on now. We're putting up the rest of the decorations and then it's business as usual, 'kay?" He nodded in reply. "Good! Now hop to it, soldier! We have business to attend to! Diiiiiismissed!" He smiled and gave a mock salute.

"Sir, yes, sir!" She patted him on his cheek before going back to the ladder, now humming along Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The next couple of days flew by. Will was racing to get his gift done in time, but he managed. The day finally came, and boy was it glorious. With some crates and an old door, they had made a dining room table. Arabella had dug into her special linen cupboard and had pulled out a red tablecloth and white serviettes. She had also had managed to pull out some wine glasses and a bottled of apple cider. When he asked where she got it, the only reply was:

"My secret."

Food wise, they had slow roasted deer shoulder with a can of sweet corn and a can of peas. For dessert, they had custard and jelly. It was nowhere near to the lavish meals they had had when they had been growing up, but it was their little slice of heaven. After the meal, they started putting everything away. Will had started carrying everything back to the miraculous storeroom, but did notice Arabella grab something looking suspiciously like a DVD player.

His suspicions were correct.

When he had returned, she had set up the DVD player along with a projector and some speakers. Against the one wall a white sheet hung down from the ceiling. He could not believe what he was seeing.

"Are we… are we going to be watching a movie?"

"Bet your sweet ass we are." She smirked, looking up to the simple joy that lit up his expression.

"How are you powering this?"

"Simple, really. I turned off half of the ventilation systems to redirect the electricity to here. When we start watching, I'll turn of these lights, and then everything should be good to go." She jammed a cable into place. "That should do it. But, there are more important things to be done first." She turned from him and walked to the crooked closet.

"And what, might that be?" Will asked, adding a bit of a posh accent for the fun of it.

"PRESENTS!" Arabella called out, turned with a wide smile holding a cloth wrapped object in her hands. She mentioned him to sit on the bed as she held the gift on her lap.

"Well, since you insist." He landed on the bed next to her, pulling out a small, also cloth wrapped package. They sat for a moment, slightly awkward.

"You first." She pushed her present over to him. After a moment of hesitation, he took it, and untied the thin leather tie that had kept it all together. In his hands, he held a hand sewn leather bag made from the hide of one of the deer Arabelle had caught earlier that year. It was the size of a laptop bag, with a long, wide leather shoulder strap. Will smirked at her.

"You know, this will go fabulously with those leather boots of mine." He stated in a rather feminine voice. Arabella laughed.

"Dude, too close." Will's smile turned to a flat line.

"Yeah…" he paused for a moment, reflecting on how gay he had sounded. He shook the thought from his mind. "Here." He handed the small parcel over to her. She took it gingerly and unwrapped it. Inside was a carefully and beautifully carved wooden whistle.

"Nice." She took a sharp breathe, blew as hard as she could and regretted it instantly. "Well, at least we know it works." She stated as she tried to rub the high pitched ringing noise from her ears.

"What did you say about orcs?" Will asked, also trying to regain his hearing. She slapped the back of his head.

"I SAID AT LEAST WE KNOW IT WORKS!"

"Ah, right." They sat for a moment longer. "Thanks for the bag. I really appreciate it."

"Glad you like it. And I can officially state that your carving skills are better than mine." She replied, still inspecting the whistle.

"Sooo… What are we watching?"

"BACK TO THE FUTURE MARATHON!" She shouted happily. Will could not believe his ears.

"No, way. Seriously?!" She pulled out the DVD set that she had found during one of her outings and put it in his hands. He nearly squealed like a school girl. No, scratch that. He did, squeal like a school girl. Arabelle snatched the box set back.

"Give me that! I will not waste my one day of indulgence on pointless high pitched noises! Now get comfortable while I get this up and running!" She hopped of the bed. "Actually, you get it up and running. I have to make a quick stop at the kitchen." She disappeared before he could say anything. He shrugged. He made sure everything was set up correctly and fiddled around with the display setting a little.

"I'm back! Press the play button already!" He turned and nearly had a heart attack when he saw what she had been carrying in her arms.

The biggest bucket of popcorn he had seen in his life. Tears started leaking from the corners of his eyes. She saw what he was staring at and she decided to tease him.

"Get your own darn popcorn." His lip curled and his tears of joy had turned to ones of sadness. Well, they were still threatening to spill. She huffed dramatically. "Fine. We can share the bucket of popcorn." He bounded over happily, settling next to her on the bed. He reached over, grabbed a fistful, and tasted heaven. He groaned in ecstasy. "Glad to see you like it." Arabella remarked, non-plussed. "Now, let the games begin!"

She leaned forward, hit the play button and flipped off the lights as the intro music started to play.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

Eight hours with lots of laughs later, the credits of the third film finally started rolling. Arabella stretched, yawning as she did. She finished the yawn with a couple of smacking sounds, scratching at a spot on her stomach. She turned to look at Will in the light of the credits. He was out cold, a small line of saliva dribbling out of his mouth. She smiled contentedly.

After the years alone, she never truly realized how much she missed having someone around to help her out and keep her company. She lit a nearby lantern, one of the many in case the power fails. The soft light lit the cavern sufficiently. She got up, shifting Will around for a while before he was nicely tucked into her bed. She slid over to a panel in the wall, putting all the correct wires back so that the emergency lights were on. They would not be bright enough to wake him, but they lit the rest of the cave system so she did not need the lantern anymore.

She would never admit it, but she felt like a mother taking care of child, teaching him the ways of the world. Too bad her "child" was 15 odd years older than she was. She softly stalked through the room, putting everything away. She walked through to the kitchen and sighed softly. She put the large camping kettle to boil and prepared to start the dishes.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

Almost an hour later, she crawled into the infirmary's bed. She pulled a small book out of her pocket and with a pencil, started writing.

_Dear diary_

_Today was Christmas with Will. We had deer, corn and peas. I pulled out some apple cider too. It keeps on surprising me how much more the little things meant to Will. I guess the slavery must have been worse than I have imagined._

_I'm glad I didn't let the bear finish Will off, but I must admit, I am still a little weary. I know, we've been together for about four months already and I think I'm acting like I used to, but still. I really hope I didn't make a mistake._

_He still wants to go on an expedition to Smithers to join up with the Autobots. I'll have to check my stores to see if I have the supplies to pull a stunt like that. But honestly, I don't know if we should. If we get there and there's nothing there, it will be wasted fuel. I have a feeling everything over there would have evaporated by now. And if they are there, what then? Do I join them, and live in even more fear of being taken by the Decepticons, help them if it's necessary, or simply come back and be alone again? I don't know!_

She paused for a moment, sighing, before writing further.

_I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Besides, we're still going to be stuck in here until mid Feb, so I still have some time to think it over. I do hope for his sake that if we go and we get there, we do find something and that he finds his wife and daughter._

_Speaking of which, he's losing muscle mass. I guess we will just have to step up the exercises then. Hehehe._

_'Til the next big event_

_Arabella_

She closed the book, slipped it underneath her pillow and promptly fell asleep.

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**There we go guys! :3 I added the diary entry to give us a view of the world through Arabella's eyes. Hope it explains the character changes that had been occurring. Anyhoo, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my weekend. See you all next week! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello again everyone! Hope ya'll still doin' gewd!**

**So yeah, I did a time skip again, because hey, they were stuck in the cave for New Years, and Fireworks would just be plain, downright stupid. So Spring it is!**

**Sunnysides4life - Glad you like it :3**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy - Yes, for some reason we know all your holidays for no reason. Maybe it's because they on putting them on calendars or something. I dunno. :3 **

**Sweettea1 - They might be, they might not be. I haven't made up my mind yet.**

**I'm still looking for a Beta reader. If anyone is willing, that would be nice! :D **

**Onwards! And don't forget to RnR! :3**

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There were light slapping sounds emanating from the infirmary. Will swatted at the source of annoyance, burying his head deeper into the pillow. The slaps became harder.

"Get up, Sleeping Beauty, time to get to work."

"'ive mo' minutes." Will groaned into the pillow. There was a slight sighing sound accompanied shortly after with the sound of fading footsteps. The footsteps became, however, louder once again.

Will was introduced to the cold.

"GAH! WHATCHA DO THAT FOR!?" Arabella had dumped a bucket of slushy snow on him.

"Had to get you to wake up somehow, now that my air horn has run out." She shrugged. Will fumed through his shivers. "Now get moving! We have more work than you can imagine at the moment, and the sooner you get you sorry beee-hind a movin' the sooner we can get out of here! Hut, hut, hut!" Arabella shouted, dragging the shocked Lennox out of the bed.

After a quick round of exercises and an even quicker breakfast, they set off to find buckets. Big ones. They got some shovels too, and worked their way to the entrances. Arabella let out a low whistle.

"The snow is a bit farther in than usual. Must have been a big storm, but I reckon we could have this one cleared in, say…" She scratched her chin as she did the calculations "four hours? Maybe five. Alright! Enough lolly gaggin'! Fill those buckets, and fill them good."

Loading as much snow into the buckets as they could, they carted them out to the waterfall's cave, tossing the snow over the edge.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

On the outside, the world was serene; a calm silence graced the untouched snow. It lay in a thick blanket and was thicker around the base of the mountain. The squirrels started poking their small heads out of their little hiding places and small buds graced the ends of the branches. There was an odd scuffling sound ringing out over the fields of snow, which made the animals pause. They all turned to look at the mountain where the noise was coming from.

Suddenly, a shovel broke through the surface and all the animals skittered away. The shovel retracted and a gloved hand pawed at the hole it had made. A head popped out.

"FREEEDOM!" A Scottish accent rang out as Arabella wormed her way through the snow. Mel Gibson would have been proud at her execution of the famous war cry. Rolling out into the sunlight, she plopped onto the ground, smiling as the sun warmed her face. Will crawled out from behind her and was nearly blinded by all the light. He squinted at her and realised she was wearing snow goggles.

"Now how come I didn't get a pair of goggles?" He whined.

"You didn't ask." She smugly replied, taking the moment to catch her breath. It was warm out, the snow glistening as it gave subtle hints of melting. She dug out the extra pair of goggles and tossed them over to Will, who donned them quickly. "Will, tell me what you notice." Will paused and took a good look around. The shadows were long and the sun was getting close to the horizon.

"Wha…" Will looked up at the mountain, down at Arabella, and back at the lowering sun. "But we've only been up a couple of hours…" He trailed off. This didn't make any sense.

"Will, I woke us up at 1 o'clock, or 1300 hours. During the winter months, I have been shifting our sleeping patterns forward in preparation for what's ahead. It's nearly six now, and you will only start to feel tired at about four in the morning. Now, as much as I would like to continue this conversation, we have about half an hour of light left to clear out as much of this as we can. Luckily we just need to shift the snow out of the way. So grab that shovel and get back to work." She flipped out of the snow before sliding back down through the hole. She tossed the shovels back through the entrance and they set to work.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"Alright, sunshine. Do you still remember how to use these?" Arabella tossed a box in front of Will. Inside were a couple of military grade night vision goggles. Will took them out and whistled.

"Where'd you find these babies?" Arabella shrugged.

"It's amazing what you find in some people's basements. I swear that guy had been ready for the zombie apocalypse. It's where I found most of my shotguns." She pointed over her shoulder at the neatly displayed weapons. Will glanced over to them, nodding in approval.

"Well, that guy was well prepared." He pulled out a pair and took a good look at them. "Well, what you have here are night vision goggles that have been equipped with infrared and some level of binoculars. This guy did not pick them up from the corner store, if you know what I mean." Arabella grinned. You always did find the best stuff on the black market. Will frowned a little as he inspected the piece he held. "Hit the lights, will ya'?"

Arabella skipped over to the switch board, pulling down on the lever that fed the lights. The main lights of the cavern cut out, leaving only the emergency lights burning hazily in the background. Still able to see her way around, she made her way back to Will.

"What's the verdict?" She asked, hopping on the table beside him.

"This one's batteries are dead, but we should be able to revive him. Here, hold this." He shoved the goggles into her hands and grabbed the next one. He tutted. "I think it's the same here. It looks like it might have been damaged… hang on." He gave the instrument a good hit with the flat of his hand. "Ah, there we go. Fixed!" Arabella giggled at him. He tugged the strange goggles off his head. "You can turn the lights back on." She handed him the goggles back and went over to turn the lights on again.

They both winced as their eyes had to re-adjust to the sharp light. Will was looking at the gear again.

"Why did you bring these guys out now?" Will asked, still inspecting the pieces before placing them back in the box she had brought them in.

"I think the snow will have melted by next week, and I want to go into town. We only raided towns during the night and we had stock piled a bit. I want to go in to check my stores to see if we can actually afford to make a trip to Smithers and back without running out of gas. Besides," she reclined onto her bed "it will give us a chance to test the goggles and it will also give you an idea of what we are getting ourselves into. And hey, if they aren't ready by then, we will have the full moon out to guide us." She stated sagely. Will nodded.

"I should have them up and running by then." Arabella nodded in acknowledgement.

"Good. Now I'd suggest you'd get some sleep. We've got a long day ahead."

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The next day she woke them earlier than normal. They needed to go hunting; their stores were starting to run low. Neither Arabella nor Will had the heart to kill any of the does that had their kids with them. After a while of searching, they finally found a buck. It was good getting back into the routine of hunting after so many weeks of being trapped in the cave. By the time they got back, the light was starting to fade, and it was fading fast. They made quick work of the meat, but as they walked back through the dimly lit corridors, Arabella ducked into the shadows.

"Bella?" A dark hand reached out, grabbed Will by the collar, and dragged him into the darkness. Will was amazed to find the shadow had hidden a whole new set of tunnels. They were not lit like the others had been. Instead, they were lit by the light of Arabella's torch*.

"This way." She ordered as she made her way down the left hand corridor. These tunnels were narrower than the others and the dust lay as a thick, messy carpet. "I repeat my first warning of not exploring these tunnels. They became such a twisted mess we were lost for three days before we found a way out again. We just vowed never to use these tunnels." She had reached and intersection of four tunnels running into different directions in front of them. She didn't walk into any of them. She turned so quickly that Will almost thought she had fallen or something. He turned. He found that there was a corridor running almost parallel with the corridor they had just come from. He jogged to catch up.

Will could not shake the ominous feeling that had emanated from the four tunnels behind them. Arabella seemed to notice his discomfort.

"Those four tunnels lead to a sharp drop off. If you fell down, you'd get impaled by the stalagmites." She was silent for a moment. "Or is it stalactites? I could never remember. Either way, we are here." They stepped into a large room. It was four times as wide as the corridors and as long. Arabella walked over to one of the rocky walls and after a moment, a few dull bulbs flickered to life. Will whistled softly.

The room was bigger than he had originally thought. Looking around, there was various mining equipment lying around, mainly consisting of pickaxes, a few mining carts and here and there were pieces of broken track. Arabella was making her way over to the far side wall.

"James and I found this place, by accident really. We assume it was some old, secret gold mine." She looked over to the one wall. He followed her gaze. The cart tracks rolled into a few different mines tunnels in the one wall. "We followed the tracks once. Most of them ended in dead ends. There was one that had a smelting room, for safety's sake, we stayed out of there." She had reached the ladder that ran up the wall through another small hole. "Heck, it was out of respect."

"Why respect?" Will called out as she started scaling the ladder.

"We found the miner." She called without looking back as she made quick work of climbing. Will gave her a few moments head start before starting up himself. The hole became narrower here and there, but the squeezed through with no problems. If will had not been keeping an eye on Arabella's development, he would have smacked his head into her bottom. He stopped just in time.

Arabella had shifted herself so her feet were on the ladder and pressed her back against the wall to free her hands.

"You might want to cover your mouth. This is going to be dusty." She called down as she wrapped a small scarf around her mouth. She passed a scarf to Will, who copied her body stance and proceeded to create the filter. She waited a moment longer and moved a bit further up the ladder. Feeling around on the walls, she held tightly to the ladder as she split her legs, digging her feet into two rather small crevices in the walls. Holding still, she reached up and carefully pushed against a trapdoor. It creaked open and a wave of dust fell in, illuminated by milky white moonlight. Slowly, she lifted the door further.

The door finally fell open against a wall and Arabella lifted herself out, cringing slightly at the feeling of the dust on her fingers. As soon as she brushed her fingers against the pants, she turned and helped Will out of the hole. He was coughing. He soon got over it and looked around the room that was bathed in moonlight.

The light filtered through dirty windows, cracks in the walls and holes in the ceiling. The light fell over old tables strewn with old tools and cabinets whose inside had not seen the light of day in years. The dust was kicked up in clouds as they shuffled about. There were two large tarpaulin covered shapes in the old garage in which they were standing. The sharp contrasts between the light and the dark made for interesting shapes and gave the objects a haunting appeal.

Arabella walked over to the windows, drawing the brittle curtains to try and keep the light they would be making inside. The room plunged into darkness and there were some scuffling sounds before a match cracked to life, setting light to the small kerosene lamp. Will looked around again, mouth slightly agape in awe at the objects that had once been so common.

"Welcome to the next part of operation, Will. Hope you're ready for the work that lies ahead." She stated as she dramatically ripped the tarpaulin off the objects, sending waves of dust flying everywhere. As the dust settled, Will could feel the excitement starting to bubble inside him and started to smile.

* * *

***Torch- South African name for a flashlight. She was not planning on burning anything.**

**So there's the chapter! See you next week!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hola people! Me again!**

**Sooooo I didn't post this chapter this morning like I wanted to. My mom roped me into helping her clean the house, and not just 'a quick vacuum' either. There was some actual floor scrubbing involved. (Ow, my back and my knees)  
**

**Anyhoos, here's the next chappie! I'm glad to say tha...  
**

**Prowl: (tap tap tap) Is this thing on?  
**

**Me: Prowl, what the hell are you doing in my story?  
**

**Prowl: Reading the disclaimer?  
**

**Me: Wrong story. Get out, get out, GET OUT! (door slam)  
**

**Sorry about that.  
**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy:... Yes.  
**

**sweettea1: Great to know my work is being appreciated :3  
**

**As always, I do not own Transformers. If I did, I would have a Jazz mobile. B)  
**

**As always please RnR, and if I made any mistakes, please point them out. And also, I'm not Catholic, so I was thumbsucking there :P And a Beta would be nice :) Nudge nudge, wink wink, hey hey?  
**

* * *

A brisk coolness hung in the air, gently moved by an almost non-existent breeze. Trees stood as tall guards in the dark, casting deep shadows and haunting shapes. The sharp moonlight was softened by the thin cloud layer that drifted hazily in the starry sky. Two even darker shapes flitted over the ground, barely making any sounds, leaving the disturbed air as the only evidence of their passing.

They were a half a mile from the town. They had abandoned the one truck they had come in, covering it with the thick tarpaulin, hiding it in the shadows. They panted softly as they ran.

_"We found these babies standing all in the middle of nowhere and decided we could put them to good use."_

_"Can you remember what make they are?"_

_"Nope. I stopped caring too long ago to remember. I just refer to them as Big Blue and Red."_

Red was the larger of the two trucks and was the one waiting in the forest for them to return. Will had gotten the night vision goggles to work, leaving them running through a brightly tinted green world. Not that he complained.

_"How did you get them to be so quiet?"_

_"Let's say I knew a guy that owed me a favour. He was still alive and I made him see reason to help us."_

_"Shotgun?"_

_"Yep."_

Will smiled softly at the naughty giggle Arabella had let out at the time as they were driving with no headlights through the dark forest. She was running in front of him with a backpack and her bow and quiver also strapped to her back. Her arms were extended behind her, her upper body leaning forward. Will copied her body stance as he ran and it felt like he was a bit more streamlined. It was either that, or he had watched way too much Naruto in the past.

Yip, way too much Naruto.

In the distance Will could make out the rectangular shapes of old buildings. Here and there were the jagged shapes of buildings that had collapsed, either from disuse or some war damage. It was a little hard to tell in the dark. Bella slowed down, walking quickly but still bent forward. They kept to the shadows as they slipped in between buildings. They came to the main road and Will got a glimpse at how small the place really was.

The town had a main road, what had once been a church, an old bar and a hotel with an old supermarket deteriorating in the corner. There was also a hardware store with broken windows. All the old buildings, save the church, had an extra floor for occupants. The church with its broken spire may at one point had had an area for the resident pastor to live. Here and there stood the wrecks of cars, covered in a thick layer of dust, or rather sludgy muck. Most of the buildings had the tell-tale signs of having basements.

Bella signalled for them to go around the back. They slunk through to the back of the hotel. Arabella seemed to pause and smiled.

"Whatever you do, shut up and let me do the talking." She whispered urgently to Will. Before he could react, she walked over to the door and spoke in a lowered tone.

"Forgive me Father, for it has been three years since my last confession." There was silence for a short while.

"Speak, my child, all will be forgiven." A man's voice responded. Arabella smiled.

"Father, in my private I have succumbed to thoughts of delusion. My delusions were chased away by an angel, who walks by my side." Will just stared.

"Indeed, he shall keep you safe and from harm in the foreseeable future, though your delusions are worrisome. You need to say five 'Hail Mary's' to be forgiven."

"Yes Father. To God be the Glory, Amen."

"Amen. Go in peace, my child."

"Thank you, Father." Arabella abruptly stood up and left. Will jolted out of his reverie, and jogged to catch up with the fading figure.

"Didn't know you were Catholic." Will whispered loudly.

"I'm not." She stopped talking, forcing them back into silence. They ran towards the hardware store, hiding around the back. Will could see the doors to the basement in the tall grass. Arabella, however, had other plans and hopped through the window into the backroom of the building. She helped Will in.

While he was still coughing at the amount of dust he had managed to disturb, she had gone over to what appeared to be a janitor's closet, and after removing the old trolley, shifted a panel in the floor. She waited for will to follow her before slipping down the short ladder.

They ended up in a dank, dark room with so little light coming in they needed a torch to see what they were doing. The goggles could only do so much.

In the large room barely taller than their heads, were various items that had over the years been collected and stored, but the majority of what was there were gas canisters and barrels of petrol. There were about 13 tall gas canisters, five medium and two small sized. On the other side of the room stood a total of seven full barrels of petrol with one half empty from previous use. Arabella fished out a small notebook and pencil and wrote down a few notes.

"So, if you aren't Catholic, do explain the priest." Will was rather suspicious of the arbitrary behaviour he had witnessed. She answered him without looking up.

"Eli has been living here since the… thing happened. He keeps a very low profile and an eye on everything that may or may not be going on around here. I basically asked if anything had happened since I last was here, and he asked if he could get five smoked deer shoulders again sometime. It's one of the ways I pay him to keep an eye on my stuff." Will 'ah'ed in understanding, and looked around a bit more. He noticed something on the wall and frowned.

"Why did you block the doorway to the basement?" He asked, leaning closer to inspect the masonry work. Arabella looked up, confused for a moment, but then remembered.

"Make it harder for anyone to come and steal anything. I'm rather paranoid about that." She tapped the pencil against her pursed lips before scribbling something down again.

"Where did you get all the gas from?" Arabella looked at him for a moment before returning to her notes.

"We would siphon it from the tanks of all the cars we came across. We found a petrol tanker once, but we didn't have enough barrels to get all of it. And the machinery was a bit complicated to use." Will ah'ed again. "Alright, we're done here. We have one more stop before we head back." She stashed her notes, resting against one of the large metal barrels. She turned to face Will, her face drawn in an emotionless mask.

"Will, right here we have enough fuel to make it to Smithers and back with no problems. And quite frankly, the only reason I'm doing this is for a bit of excitement. So that means, and I hope you get this quite clearly, that if at any time, and I mean ANY time, I feel it's not worth making the trip, we, are, not, going to do it." Will started sputtering a little. "Now, at the rate that we are going, we could be saddled up and out of here in less than a week, but then we are going to be working our beautiful behinds off to do so. Now, if I see any slackin' whatsoever, I will not only cancel the trip, but I will also kick you out of my caves so you can learn to take care of yourself, understood?"

He looked at her flabbergasted. There were no words tumbling out his mouth, only incoherent sounds.

"Now see, I like having you around, so don't give me any reason to kick you out, ya hear?" He nodded furiously. "Good! Now we're off to the supermarket! I hear they have some great specials on hygiene products this time of the year." Her suddenly chipper attitude was so contrasting of the sombre mood before, Will was started to question Arabella's sanity.

And it was not the first time he was doing so either.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

In the shadow of a passing cloud, the duo flitted across the street to the old supermarket standing on the corner. Arabella led them into a side alley and in through the back door. Will expected her to lift up another panel in the floor to reveal some secret passage to some secret stash of something that he was genuinely surprised she walked right into the front of the store, moving in between the near empty aisles in search of something. He had no idea, however, as to what it was that she was looking for. She really didn't tell him much.

He followed her around a corner and nearly winded himself against her back. She had, after all, stopped rather abruptly. When he finally took notice of what they were staring at, his jaw dropped at the femininity of the item and immediately blushed a bright tomato red.

There were sanitary towels everywhere. Ignoring Will's discomfort, Arabella grabbed one of the packs and tore it open, inspecting the contents, taking a deep sniff as she turned the small white pad over in her hands.

"Wha… what are you doing?" Will finally managed to sputter out. Arabella kept her focus on the soft object in her hands.

"I was thinking that if we go there and we find them, pads would make a nice… peace offering? Gift? And if there aren't any chicks there, the medic can use them as a way to stop bleeding in patients. They work brilliantly as big band aids. And besides, I don't use them or the tampons, so what am I going to do with something I'm not using?" She shrugged nonchalantly. "These are still good. I was kind of worried that they may have expired by now. Good to know they haven't." She tossed the open pads back on the shelf as she made to leave. Will fell in step behind her.

"What do you mean, 'you don't use them?'"

"When I was 14, my ovaries exploded. They had caused so much damage that the doctors had to remove my uterus as well. So, no periods for me!" She just kept on walking. Will stared at the back of her head as he walked.

"Well, that explains a lot!" He mumbled to himself as he fell into step behind her.

Outside the moon had passed its peak and was starting to descend. Arabella stared into the sky and took note of this. "Come on, we better get moving." She slid between the waist high bushes into the direction they had come from. Will followed her and soon they were running back the way they had come, leaving nothing but fading footsteps as evidence of any disturbance.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

_Dear diary_

_We are starting to get ready to leave. Had a trip into town today and we still have a junk load of supplies. I told Will that if he screws up, I'm kicking him out of here. I hope he realizes I wasn't serious._

_Checked on the pad supply as well. I think that will be a nice thing for any of the women stranded there. I think they're good quality. Or at least I hope they are._

_It sucks not being able to have kids. I'll never admit it to anyone, but I really wanted to have a bunch of my own. I always wondered, _will they have my hair? _or _Will they have my husband's eyes?_ or _Will they have my mother's smile?_ I guess I'll never find out._

_Well, we're shipping out of here soon. I'm still hoping this trip won't be a waste. Even if there's nothing there, it would have made for a nice bit of excitement, right?_

_Anyway, sleep tight. See you next time, ok?_

_Arabella_


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys!**

**Soooo... this one's a day late, sowi. Mom had me cleaning the entire house and my boyfriend kidnapped me for the day so I couldn't get to the computer to upload anything.**

**Anyhoo, here's the story! I skipped the whole week of preparations thingy just because if I was reading the story I would have gotten bored with it. And I was too lazy to write it anyway XD.**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy - Yes, it does explain a lot, doesn't it?**

**Sweettea1 - Thank you :3 Glad to know someone thinks this vague mish-mash is any good :3**

**As always, if you see any mistakes, let me know.**

**Onwards! And as always, I own nothing!**

**Frenzy: You own food, don't you?**

**Me: Frenzy, get out of my story before I get the baseball bat, 'kay?**

**Onwards, and please RnR! :D**

* * *

They had been driving for hours already. They would take shifts driving through the dark night to make sure they could keep their concentration on the black road that winded through ancient forests. By Arabella's book, they were making good time.

By Will's, they weren't.

Arabella constantly had to warn Will to slow down. Sure, there was no cloud cover and the moon was shining bright and granted they had the night vision goggles to see where they were going but there was no need to be reckless.

Will was at the wheel. He had to be given a quick crash course on how to drive again, but he wasn't doing too bad. He eventually remembered and was overall a good driver.

If you didn't mind hurling through the dark with no headlights on.

They were in Big Blue, the faster of the two trucks. It used to be a double cab something with a large flatbed in the back. The back seat was strategically loaded to allow the seats to recline as far as possible for when they stopped during the day. The truck bed was also loaded with supplies.

The back seat held their immediate food supply and weapons, with a bottle of fresh water to keep them hydrated. The back had their backup food with the gifts that they were taking along. There was one of Arabella's crates of soap bars, the crate with the sanitary towels, a box with medical supplies and a box of stuff that Arabella refused to say what they were. Also sloshing around in the back was a 20 litre barrel of fresh water for drinking only, along with enough fuel to redo the trip entirely, just in case. They will have to sacrifice their hygiene for the few days on the road.

Arabella was not on really on the right side of the car to truly enjoy the scenery, but she stared at what she could see. The tall trees that let beams of blue-grey moonlight shine through that would gently highlight what shrubbery there was in the forest.

There were no animals to be seen, but then again, that was to be expected. They should all be sleeping somewhere. That reminded Arabella.

"Keep an eye out for deer. They won't move out of the way for a pair of headlights anymore." Will nodded in acknowledgement. He could vaguely remember the stories from the times so long ago where people have died in accidents from hitting deer that stood in the middle of the road. With this in mind, Arabella flicked a switch on the side of the goggles. "Switched to heat vision. I'll keep any eye out for any life out there."

Will was glad that she would help keep an eye out for him. They fell back into the silence from before. It was not tense, it was not awkward, but simply two people keeping to their own thoughts. The idea that they were sneaking around at night probably added to the need for silence.

After a few more minutes of silence, Arabella huffed and dug out the old iPod and flipped through a few of the albums. She finally chose one and put the music player into the docking station. Gentle classical music filled the cabin, and they continued their journey absorbed in the music.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"Pull over. It's almost daybreak." The horizon was starting to turn pink. Both drivers were exhausted. Will gently started braking, pulling the truck over onto the shoulder. "Stay here." Before he could protest, she hopped out and surveyed the area. She pointed him over to the trees and after five minutes of manoeuvring, they were safely beneath the tree cover of the tall pines.

She and Will pulled out a sheet of thick shading net, using it to cover the entire car, making it a non-descript shape in the shadows. Slinking underneath all the netting once more, they climbed back into the car and promptly fell asleep.

The cab had started to heat up a little during the day, but thanks to the shade and the netting, they were safely sheltered from the rays. The sun made its long, arduous trek across the bright blue sky which went completely unnoticed by the slumbering travellers. It was late afternoon when Arabella woke. She stretched as she yawned, her back and neck making a series of clicking sounds as everything slotted back into place. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she surveyed what she could see through the netting. She reached over and none too gently shook the sound asleep Will awake.

"Wha…?" He snorted as he sat up, nearly cross-eyed in bleariness.

"We've got company." She pointed at bonnet. Will leaned a little closer as the blurry shapes finally swam into shape.

There was a raccoon happily perched on the bonnet, staring at the strange beings inside the shape it could have sworn had not been there yesterday. Arabella yawned again, and as she did, nearly hit William in the face with her fist.

"Geez, watch where you swing that thing, will ya?" Will called irritably. She just glared at him.

"Right, judging by where the sun is sitting in accordance to the shadows, I'd say it's late afternoon. I vote we do our business in the woods, get something to eat and get back on the road. All in favour, say 'aye'."

"Aye." Will deadpanned.

"The ayes have it!" Arabella cheered, lifting her hands in the air. "Everybody out! We're burning daylight here!" Will rolled his eyes before falling remarkably stupidly out of the truck. All he heard was a stifled guffaw as he stomped out into the forest, ears blazing red in embarrassment.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The next few days passed in a similar fashion; after driving until early in the morning, they'd pull over, cover the car, sleep, and get back on the road. Wash, rinse, repeat. Closer to the end of the fifth day, they started seeing the signs. Deciding not to stop, they drove straight into the morning, arriving in the small old town just before the sun reached its zenith. They drove into what could have at one stage have been the town centre. They stopped the car, climbing out slowly and cautiously, Will with a pistol, Arabella with her bow and arrows.

Smithers was deserted. If tumbleweeds were around in Canada, they would have been rolling all over the show. The shop windows were dusty, everything metalling had been rusted, things were broken and had seen the poisonous hand of decay. A sign swung noisily, screeching loudly as the breeze gently toyed with it. Arabella summed the place up with one sentence.

"This place is a dump."

No truer words could have been stated. It would have been easier to tear the place down and start over again rather than trying to fix what was left. Arabella kept her eyes peeled, glaring at the landscape with slitted eyes of suspicion. Will was looking around frantically for any sign of life. Arabella looked at him and immediately recognised the look in his face.

"Will. Hey, Will!" The shout finally got his crazed attention. "We just got here. Now, I think we should find a place to sleep for now. We are in no state to be looking for anything, and we have enough fuel to drive around and search for a while before we start heading back." He looked around uncertain. "Will," she called him gently "if they are here, we will find them. Don't worry. Now get in. This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies." They drove off and even in the bright midday light, there was an ominous feel to the town, as though evil beings lurked in the shadows. If Arabella, who was busy driving, had looked in her rear view mirror at that exact moment, she might have caught a glimpse of the red eyes that were watching them, but she did not and thus they left with only the niggling feeling in the back of their minds to tell them that there was something unmistakably wrong.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

They decided to search under the cover of night, relying on an aged map of what had once been Smithers. Arabella was driving; she was in no mood for Will's harsher, more reckless driving. Her night-goggles were on their normal setting while Will kept an eye out for any heat signatures. It was quiet, there was no wind to disturb anything and the moon had bathed the world in its milky light, but it was very, very quiet.

There were no sounds of owls hooting or crickets chirping. She couldn't see the swooping shadows of the bats in the night and she was starting to get worried.

"Will, do you notice anything?" The whisper did not startle Will, but he did frown a little.

"No, why do you ask?"

"Because there is a mountain where the road is supposed to be." Will looked up, and saw nothing. Arabella noticed his silence. "Switch to night vision you moron." Will grinned sheepishly before flicking the switch.

It was true. Looking at the map, they were supposed to have an open road ahead of them, but instead there was the towering cliff face of a large mountain. Arabella brought the car to a halt.

"Either mountains can grow over seven years, or it's a fake. What do you think?" Will was silent. This didn't make any sense! The geography did not match the map at all. "Either way, you gotta tell me if I should run for it or not, because we are being followed." Will's head whipped to hers. "Don't look!" She hissed, grabbing his face before he could look out the back window. "If you do, he'll know we know he's there." Will paused, forcing himself to look forward.

"Can you see what he looks like?"

"It looks like a hunting cat with red eyes." Will hissed softly.

"Ravage. If we don't get some serious back up soon, we are screwed nine ways to Sunday." Arabella pulled a face.

"Well isn't that lovely. Tell you what, there's what looks like to be a cave over on that side! I say we check it on out!" Arabella practically shouted. Will ducked down a little, his hands covering his ears.

"Are you crazy?!" He hissed loudly. "You're going to get us killed!" She only gave him a look and continued staring into the rear view mirror.

"I'M GLAD TO HEAR YOU THINK THAT'S AN EXCELLENT IDEA, WILL! LET'S GET GOING!" She shouted even louder, noting the dark shadow moving around a corner before slamming on the gas. The wheels squeeled in protest.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Will shouted, grabbing on to the side of the cab to steady himself. She was driving straight towards the cliff face that was about 300 metres ahead of them.

"Saving our asses!" She rolled down the window and stuck her head out. "INCOMING FRIENDLIES! BEING CHASED BY BADDIES! CARRYING CAPTAIN WILL LENNOX AND CO! BEGGING FOR ASSISTANCE!" A feral snarl could be heard in the distance. Arabella pushed the gas pedal down to the floor, praying that her plan worked as Will suddenly became Christian and began pleading to God to let him live.

They were less than 20 metres away from the cliff face when a door started shimmering into view and a series of laser shots came out. Arabella swore loudly before ripping the mask of Will's face.

Just as she did, the laser shots changed direction to the left of them, aiming at the snarling beast that was jumping for them. Arabella just kept going straight, passing through the shimmering cave entrance. The snarling behind them stopped and Arabella slammed on the brakes. The car began to spin a little, but the car came to a halt before smashing into one of the tunnel like walls. Doors slammed down roughly behind them and they tumbled out of the truck, gasping in attempt to get the adrenalin out of their systems.

"Don't… you… ever… do… that… again." Will wheezed out, lying flat on the floor.

"Not planning on it." Arabella removed the goggles from her head as she laid on her back on the floor, panting a little softer. She looked up, squinting as she surveyed the world around them. "Oh, hello row of soldiers pointing guns at me. Nice to meet ya'." She laid her head against the cool concrete again. "Hey Will, have you seen the awesome welcoming committee yet? I mean, have you ever felt so welcome in your life?" She called out.

"Epps?"

"Lennox?" She heard strange voices behind her, and listened as they became animated and happy.

"Well, at least he's got some friends around here. Hey, Will!" She called out again, silencing the conversation. "Do you mind introducing me? Seeing as I did save you butt and brought you back to some vague sense of civilisation and all." There was a bit off shuffling off to the side.

"Men, stand down." She cracked one eye open. Hearing Will speak with such authority was a strange thing. "Arabella, please get up off the floor." She looked at him indignantly.

"Why should I? I like the floor!" She rolled over onto her stomach, hands stretched out. "It's so smooth!"

"Arabella."

She huffed. "Fine. But only because you asked nicely." She hopped up standing to face Will. Standing next to him was a black man that was about his height and age if she had to guess.

"Arabella, this is Robert Epps. He used to be my second in command back in the days that I was in charge of N.E.S.T. and he's my best friend. Epps, this is…"

"Arabella Micheals. I saved his sorry butt from getting mauled by an angry bear and nursed him back to the state of muscularness-ness that you can see standing right in front of you. I have been in charge of his safety, wilderness training and survival for the past couple of months. I am a neutral in this damned war and plan on keeping it that way. I'm just here because Will asked me to bring him. Once I make sure he is settled and my gifts have been well received, I will be making my way back to my caves to live the rest of my sorry, crazy life in peace."

"And we shall not keep you, Arabella Micheals." A deep baritone voice rumbled from behind her. She turned slowly, neck craning to see the top of the monstrosity behind her. Will gave her the answer to the mystery of what she was looking at.

"Optimus Prime."


	10. Chapter 10

**SUP PEOPLE! So... the world hasn't ended yet, (I hope), so I decided to put up the next chappie! :) **

**Just to say, this chapter takes place about 5 minutes after the last one ended XD. Some stuffs about to go DOWN!**

**As always, criticism welcomed. I wish to improve my writing at all times :)**

**Random Reviewer - I tried going for a world where he didn't exist, and just realized that there was no way I could make that work, so I kept him alive :3 Glad to know you're enjoying the story!**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy - ...**

**Sweettea1 - Glad to know you still enjoy my craziness!**

**(Hehe, listening to REM's 'end of the world' while writing this. LOLS!)**

**Anyway, as always, I own nothing!**

* * *

The entrance had led to a large underground bunker with a large sunken area in the middle with wide walkways. There were harsh fluorescent lights that lit the place, with various tunnels running off into different directions. They were all large enough for a robot the size of Optimus to walk through. The place was a hive of activity with ragtag soldiers running around doing various activities. Cars and motor bikes would flit in and leave, with or without drivers. They were obviously preparing for something, but what was up for debate.

Arabella could care less. She didn't care who had shot who first, but the point of the matter was that the entire world was now in ruins thanks to an alien war. People might have thought that she would have jumped at the opportunity to join the Autobots, but they were all wrong. Her family was gone, her friends were gone, her dreams were gone. She wanted no part in this. She was not playing neutral, she was removing herself from the game entirely, or was trying to, at the very least. The entire race could go to hell for all she cared, but that would not restore the damage that had already been caused. And besides, she was happy where she had been. Her little hole in the ground, quite literally, was grand by her standards. She didn't need anything and didn't want anything either. She just wanted to eventually die in piece, not shot to pieces.

She walked over to the rails, scrutinizing every last detail as she tuned out what the large Autobot and Will was talking about. There were a few curious eyes here and there. Some of the vehicles would unfold into robots themselves, only to talk to another person for a moment before leaving again. It kind of reminded her of a bee hive. She turned back to the people that were talking and noticed something. Epps had joined her at the edge.

"Hey Rob. The old guy in over by the hummer. Who's he?" The black man glanced over.

"Oh, that's Commander Simon Clarkson. He's been running this outfit for a while now."

"Huh." She tilted her head back a little, scrutinizing the white haired man. "Call him over will ya? I want to talk to him." Epps looked at her funny for a moment, but waved the man over. The commander frowned, but started walking closer. Arabella straightened up as he walked closer.

"What's the meaning of this, Epps?" Simon Clarkson was not really tall by anyone's standards, but was built like a house. His piercing blue eyes seemed to cut into your soul.

"Sir, this is Arabella Micheals. She's the one that brought William Lennox back to us."

"And?" He asked in a no nonsense type of voice that made Epps shudder.

"I asked him to call you so I can talk to you," she paused, "Simon." She practically spat out.

"Well, what do you want?" His question was answered with a fist to the face. There was a loud crunch as her fist collided with his nose. His head snapped back and he took two steps back to try and regain his balance. There were shouts of alarm all around and Rob tried to restrain her.

She, however, was having none of it.

She forced herself out of Rob's grip, flipping him over to land quite solidly on his back. The commander had recovered well enough to throw his own punch, which she deftly dodged, landing a sharp jab to his stomach. The man winced, but stood standing. She aimed a roundhouse kick for his head.

Her foot stopped millimetres from his face, held in place by the strong grip of his right hand.

"After all these years, that's the way you decide to greet your father?" The room froze.

"Oh, so now you're my father? If I remember correctly, you died." The tension in the room doubled. Will's eyes flitted between the two. She had always avoided the topic of her father. Arabella's face was a tight mask and Simon's was one of contempt.

"Well, I can't be standing here if I'm dead now, can I?" He shifted his face a little closer. Her leg was tight in his grasp, but her balance was impeccable.

"You died the day you disowned me," her balance shifted and using her biological father's shoulder, she flicked herself over, her left leg on the travel trajectory for an imminent impact on his head from the side. It only took a blink of an eye, but the foot collided, knocking him out cold. She got up gracefully. "and that was for the day you left me and mom out in the street to die." Everyone froze in a state of shock. She simply dusted herself off and walked over to Will.

She defiantly held out her wrists to him.

"Gonna clap some irons on me, Cap?" He only stared at her with a very prominent frown. "No? Well, then I'd like to deliver my boxes and go home now, please. I mean," she dropped her hands and looked off to the side "now that you're with your buddies and all you don't need me anymore right?" There was note of upset betrayal in her voice. Will sighed.

"Arabella…"

"You know, for a while there, you might have convinced me to stay here for maybe a week or two, you know, to make sure you settle in, all that jazz, but I will not, I repeat, WILL NOT stay within a thousand miles of that sorry excuse of a human being." Will looked over her shoulder. The commander was already being carted away to the med bay. She paused for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was a defeated whisper.

"I'd just like to see the people's faces when I give them what I have. Then I'll drive out of here, and you'll never see me again." Everyone looked at each other awkwardly. Most of the people around them just returned to what they had been doing before.

"You know, I would just find the caves again." Will joked lightly, trying to get the girl to cheer up. She just smirked.

"Please, you couldn't find that place even if I gave you a detailed map to it and besides," she paused, leaning in mysteriously "who said it's my only set of caves?"

xxxxxPCxxxxx

It was roundabout midnight when the party left for the barracks. The truck had been driven up to the main hall where the gifts would be handed out in the morning. Will and Arabella were, however, taken to a separate area of the bunker. Epps was their guide through the narrow tunnels that were only sized for humans. They stopped outside one particular room. Epps said nothing, just staring at the door. The men were frozen in anticipation outside the door. After a while, Arabella just rolled her eyes and knocked.

There was a faint, 'hello?' that came from the other side of the door.

"Ma'am, I hate to bother you so late but I think we found something that belongs to you." She called out. Will and Epps stared at her, aghast looks on their faces. There were shuffling sounds inside, the lethargic shuffles of someone who just got woken up. The shuffles grew a little louder and the door started scratching as locks were being undone.

A woman in her mid-thirties opened the door, her blond hair messy curls around her head. She had a set of scars on her left cheek and a small part of her ear was missing. Her overall complexion was pale and hollow, as though the life had been sucked out of her. She looked way older than she should. It was obvious that she had once been quite a looker. There were dark rings under her green eyes as she surveyed the trio outside her door.

She saw Epps first and her already sagging shoulders sagged a bit more. It looked like she was carrying the world on her shoulders. Her eyes flitted tiredly over to Arabella, who she stared at with mild confusion. She knew Arabella was not involved with the army, that was for sure. Her eyes finally settled on Will.

Disbelief coloured her face as tears started to fall from Will's eyes.

"Will…?" She whispered, not sure if she was dreaming or not. Her hand stretched out slowly, reaching for his cheek. Will took a step closer and unable to bear the separation any longer, wrapped his arms around her as he buried his face in her neck, shaking with sobs.

Sarah clung to Will for dear life, crying. After all these years of doubt, she had her husband back, the man she loved. Her hands anchored themselves to his back, holding him as close to her as she could.

Rob and Arabella could only watch in detached silence at the miracle reunion. Epps shuffled awkwardly, shifting his weight from one leg to the other while looking elsewhere. Arabella watched in silence with a pang in her heart that she won't greet any of her family in that way for as long as she lived.

Will pulled Sarah slightly away from him, only to look into her face.

"Annabelle…?" He asked softly, trailing off at the end. Sarah could barely maintain eye contact before bursting into a fresh set of tears, burying her face into Will's chest. Will took the lack of an answer to mean a lack of a daughter.

Annabelle was dead, another victim of the war.

It was only pure willpower that kept Will on his feet. He looked a little over to Epps for answers. Rob held his hands together in fists and illustrated an explosion accompanied by a soft booming sound. He pointed at Sarah and trailed his fingers over his left cheek.

Annabelle's death had been caused by an explosion that had scarred Sarah's face as well. Will nodded numbly, leaning into Sarah as fresh tears made their presence known.

Arabella felt sympathy for the crying couple. Burying your children is something no parent should ever face, or so she had been told. It was a thing that could rip families apart and she had borne witness to this in her rather short life before the war. Arabella noticed a slight shuffling sound and looked inside the room Sarah had come out of.

"Mommy?" A child's voice asked. A small boy, barely seven years old, was walking closer. In ill-fitting pajamas and carrying a frazzled teddy bear, the boy walked closer, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes with his tiny hands. Will saw the boy and looked at Sarah, frowning. Sarah smiled a little.

"Will, I'd like you to meet Jonathan William Lennox. Johnny, I'd like you to meet Captain William Lennox, your father."

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"I found out a couple of days before the whole Chicago disaster happened. I was already four weeks along with Johnny when all hell broke loose. Sideswipe was the one that came and protected us when Ironhide…" She let her sentence drift off. The small party were now inside Sarah's room in the barracks. The wing they were in was reserved for special or important people. Sarah had classified as special, and had so gained a small, apartment like area to live in. The front door led into a small hallway that led into a small living room. It had two well-worn couches, a small table and a bookcase with a variety of books. The hallway had doors on both sides. There were two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small kitchen.

The place was not much, but was as much luxury as the renegade base could afford.

Johnny had been sent back to bed. He had classes in the morning. The others had been sitting with small cups of tea as they conversed. Right now a thick silence had settled in the room. Arabella cleared her throat.

"As much fun all this story telling is, I'm tired and I'm pretty sure we interrupted your sleep, Sarah." Arabella stood up and everyone followed suit. "Will, I'm pretty sure you have some catching up to do with your wife," she turned to Epps "I'm sure you have other things to do," she hinted none too subtly, "and I'm going to go crash in my truck. Goodnight, everyone!" She was out the door before anyone could react.

"Will, what happened to her?" Sarah asked softly, clinging to Will's side, as if letting go of him would cause him to disappear. Will sighed.

"More than we will ever know. Come, let's go to bed." He turned to Epps. "Night and... thanks. Thanks for keeping an eye over her when I couldn't." Epps smiled and gave him a mock salute.

"Anything for my Captain. Night." He headed for the door.

"Night." Sarah whispered to his back just before he closed the door.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

Silent tears streamed down Arabella's face as she tried to sleep in her cab. Sure, it was dark enough, but there were other things on her mind.

_It's so unfair._ She whispered mentally to herself. _He has a caring family and has his own kids. I'll never have my own kids. My father hates me, my mother is dead and… and…_ A soft sob escaped her throat. _I'll go back to my caves and then one day it will be as if I had never existed. _She tossed a few more times, trying to settle down.

_I'll die alone._

* * *

_**Gah, right in the feels :'( . Anyway, RnR if you have survived the Apocalypse. If not, I assume you are a zombie with good taste :3**_

_**See all ya'll next week!**_


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi people! Hope you've had a wonderful Christmas with lots of pressies!**

**So here's the next chapter. It's a bit more of Arabella Craziness, to break the more tense and sadness streak of the previous chapter. So she won't be going home quite just yet :3**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy - You're right, she's not really going to be coming 'round anytime soon, or at all. And my last response was to show that I wasn't sure how to respond to your review, because you were reading my character in a completely different way as to how I would have imagined her coming across. So sowi about that :P**

**Sweettea1 - I know! Is soo sad! :( But it gets better! Promise! :3 And as for Sam... You'll just have to wait and find out like all the other readers. ;)**

**So still, please Read, Enjoy and Review please!**

**And if you find any mistakes (spelling, grammar, etc.) just let me know! :3**

**As always, I own nothing. IfI did, I'd be rich! RICH I TELL YA'! But, I'm not.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The awkward flickering of the fluorescent lights woke Arabella from her stuttered slumber. Dark rings had accumulated underneath her eyes. She was dead tired, only having gotten the grand total of an hour's sleep that night.

She had decided to keep her nocturnal sleeping routine for the trip home. She briefly wondered if she could get escorted back. Casting a hand over her eyes to keep the harsh light out, she weakly got out of the truck, yawning as she did.

The hall that she had slept in was pretty small by anyone's standards. It had a high ceiling and white lines criss-crossed on the floor, demarcating the area for indoor games. Arabella could vaguely recognize a basketball court and tennis court outlines.

_Must be a sort of gym._ She reasoned. As she rubbed the bleariness from her eyes, a figure came into focus.

A man over 6ft tall stood nearby, an army stance evident in his posture. He had short blue-black hair with blazing blue eyes. He stood in black army boots, with dark camo pants. He was wearing a tight blue t-shirt with a set of dog-tags swinging from his neck. They were engraved with the Autobot symbol, she assumed, on one side with the information of the wearer on the other. He was intently staring at her.

"Can I help you, sir?" She inquired politely, a confused frown on her face. Her lack of sleep was not doing her well this fine morning.

"I came to inquire as to if you have slept well last night," the man stated in a baritone voice that was remarkably familiar "though judging by your current state I would assume not." She was staring openly at him now, through squinted eyes of confusion.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" The man chuckled slightly.

"Of course. You haven't seen me in this form. I am Optimus Prime."

There were a few moments of silence as the gears stalled in her already slow mind. Her brain finally looked at the information it had received, sighed, and chucked it out the window.

"If you say so. What can I do for you, Optimus?" She sniggered internally. _Optimus was so similar to Optimistic! Hehe. Wait! He's saying something. Um…_

"Sorry, could you repeat that? I had very little sleep last night and I'm not concentrating all that well. Or at all, actually." She sighed, rubbing at her eyes again. Optimus smiled sympathetically.

"I was going to inquire as to something you were talking about last night. Something about a delivery?" He leaned forward just a little. The light bulb finally switched on in her brain.

"Ah, yes. I had an extra supply of stuff from home that I brought with as a, gift, if you will." She moved around Big Blue, hopping onto the bed in the back. Optimus came closer. "I've got a crate of medical supplies that I hope will still be of use." she patted the crate "I've also got a crate of soap bars, a crate of sanitary towels and a box of stuff for the kids. Mainly a couple of baby blankets and some toys." She sat on the one crate. Optimus nodded appreciatively. And then he frowned.

"What are in the barrels?" Arabella stared at them for a moment before her brain finally allowed her to remember.

"That's one's fresh water," she pointed at the one barrel, "and that one's fuel. They were for the trip."

"I see." Optimus nodded again. "Well, I think the best thing would be if you handed these out after the classes this morning. We wouldn't want the kids distracted during the lessons."

"No need for me to get on their mommies' bad sides, either." Arabella yawned again, but she was waking up. "I guess it would be a good idea to give the medicine to the resident doctors then. Gets it out of the way and besides," she stretched "I'm due for a check-up." Optimus chuckled knowingly. "What?" She inquired.

"Oh, nothing. You are going to love our resident medic." He stated with a smile. Arabella shrugged.

"Cool, just point me in direction of the med bay and I'll be off."

"You are going to need more than that to find his office." Arabella shrugged again, hopped into the truck and turned it on.

"Hop in. Then you can give me directions as I drive." Optimus frowned slightly, but climbed in none the less.

"Are you sure you are in the right state of mind to be driving?"

"Sure I am!" She stated merrily. "Just as long as those double doors stop swirling around the way they are doing right now." Optimus' head snapped towards her with a look of horror. Before he could protest, she floored the gas pedal, speeding towards the open corridors, careening left and right as a feminine 'WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' and a not so masculine 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAH!' emanated from the car.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"Come on, there was no need to grab the steering wheel."

"You were about to crash!"

"They got out the way in time! And besides, how was I supposed to know that was a one-way?"

"There were signs everywhere! You were in no state to drive!"

"It didn't stop you from trying. Or screaming like a little girl."

"I WAS NOT SCREAMING LIKE A FEMME!"

"Tell that to the security cameras. Now tell me, is Ratchet a doctor or a mechanic? Because I can't figure it out!" Arabella asked as she stepped out of the truck. They had driven through wide doors that led to a small hanger sized room. There seemed to be oversized beds, an oversized table and oversized door in the hanger. With her brain running on its back-up systems, she was not paying that much attention to anything. There were smoking black tire marks on the smooth concrete from where Arabella had suddenly hit the brakes, nearly causing whiplash. She turned to Optimus, who had an ashen sheen to his face.

"Come now, it wasn't that bad!" If looks could kill, she would have been six feet under. "Eh, suit yourself. Yo' Doc! Someone here to see you!" She called out. Optimus paled a little more. Loud whirring noises came from the door in the back of the hanger.

"What do you want?! I swear, if you aren't bleeding, you're gonna be!" A grouchy voice called out from the back. Arabella just tsk'ed.

"Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep, Doc, but I brought presents!" A head poked around the door. It was another Robot's head and from her initial guess, he was about 16 feet tall.

"You're not one of the usual bunch. So? What do ya' want?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I wanted to give you some medical supplies, but it looks like you don't need them." Ratchet stuttered a little. "No! It's fine!" Arabella called out, turning her back to him. "I know when I'm not wanted. I mean, who cares if I brought Will back to his family, or lugged this junk half across the continent, or that I had spent hours and hours collecting it, making sure that the pieces weren't contaminated or broken. It's fine." She paused momentarily. "It's fine. I'll just leave."

"Wait!" Ratchet shouted, taking a few steps closer, trying to stop her from leaving. She was already sitting behind the wheel again. "I'm sorry. Most of the idiots that come in here are just here to work on my nerves. I didn't get a lot of recharge last night."

"Neither did I, but you don't see me acting like an ass!" Arabella shouted back. She paused for a moment, taking a calming breath. "Apology accepted. Now, do you want these supplies or not?"

Ratchet nodded.

"Good. Now I just hope this stuff is of any use to you. And also, I'd like to have my check-up."

"When's the last time you had one?"

"Um… seven years, give or take, I think…"

You could see a faint wisp of smoke coming out from between Ratchet's ears.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"So… Apart from being sleep deprived, you are in perfect health. Impressive. I can't remember when last I had a case like that." Arabella smiled gaily as she received Ratchet's diagnosis.

"Will should be in a similar state, but you should check him anyway. Who knows what he suffered when he was stuck with the Decepticons." She stated as she pulled on her jacket.

"Speaking of, what was his state when you found him?"

"Malnourished, dehydrated, he had several scratches on him," she paused for a moment, trying to remember "He had a dislocated shoulder, a cracked fore-arm, which I think you might need to take a look at," she looked thoughtful again "and he was about to be mauled by a bear. Oh, wait! He also had a twisted ankle and some bruised ribs, if I remember correctly." She sat on the edge of the large metal bed that reminded her of one of those Autopsy tables. Her legs were swinging merrily.

"I'll look into that. Now, what did your diet consist of?"

"Whatever I could hunt or grow. I mainly hunted deer, but rabbits were good for a change in taste. I sometimes got lucky with tomatoes and beans. Once or twice I got some corn to grow. Other than that, berries." Ratchet was standing facing her, tapping away at a thing that looked like an oversized Apple iPad, but way rougher around the edges. More like something you would see in Science Fiction movies.

"I've got to admit, that is rather healthier than what we have over here. All the exercise you got from hunting works in your favour as well." His bright blue eyes dimmed for a moment. "Optimus wanted to know if we were done."

"Are we?"

"Yes, we are. He will escort you to the hall were you will be able to hand out the rest of your gifts. He has made the proper arrangements."

"Sweet." Arabella literally hopped off the 'berth' she had been sitting on. Luckily Ratchet's back had been turned when she landed, falling into a crouched position before straightening up again. "See you later, Ratchet!" She called out loudly as she walked back over to the blue truck.

"I'm not so sure I should allow you to drive."

Arabella stopped dead, turning on her heel to face Ratchet again.

"Come again?"

"Prime's orders. He was pretty firm about it."

A small, figurative raincloud obscured her face.

"I was more than half asleep when I drove this morning and also slightly crazy. I am more than in the right mind to drive."

"Really?" Ratchet turned slowly, skepticism dripping from his tone. "Think fast!"

He threw a medium sized wrench at her. It flew through the air at a dizzying speed.

Arabella did not even blink.

She grabbed it out of the air, twirling it once before throwing it back just as hard, hitting him right between the eyes.

There were loud squeals coming from the tires as she flew out of the med bay in Big Blue, racing away from the angered, no, furious medic.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

In the gym like hall where peace had been the order of the day, the peace was suddenly kidnapped and beaten to a bloody pulp by the entity of chaos.

A group of young teenaged children were in the middle of a game of basketball when the blue truck swiftly flew into the hall, hugging the wall as it screeched to a halt. It suddenly hit reverse, still running parallel to the wall, past the entrance before stopping again as the engine cut out. A silence fell on the gathered crowd who tried to understand what just happened.

They saw a woman driver sitting in the truck, holding one finger to her lips to show that they should remain as silent as they were. Before they could react, they heard, nay, felt Ratchet stomping down the hallway, only his legs visible as he stormed past the doors. The group held their frozen pose until the footsteps died off to silence.

Which was broken by hysterical laughter.

Arabella was in stitches. Clutching her sides tightly, she bellowed her guffawing laughter as tears streaked her face. It reminded her of a thing she had read once on the internet, when it still had existed:

_Laughing so hard that you don't make a sound so you just sit there clapping your hands like a retarded seal._

It described her situation so well that she started laughing harder, nearly completely unable to breathe and thus unable to make any sound.

She eventually stumbled out of the truck, rolling around on the floor until she was able to regain some form of breathing. Her stomach hurt, but she was happily wiping away tears as she eventually stood up. Or tried to.

A large hand swam into her field of vision which she grabbed to pull herself up.

"Arabella" Will, who she had not realised was playing with the kids, asked with a suspicious tone in his voice, "what did you do?"

Arabella, who was still gasping for breath, smiled, speaking shakily between the puffing.

"I…" puff "gave him…" puff " a taste of his own…" puff, puff, "medicine." Will started to smile a little as the kids stood still, also grinning a little.

"How so?"

"I threw a wrench at him." The teens burst out with 'Oooh, burn!' noises as Will paled.

"YOU ASSAULTED RATCHET?!" He practically screamed in fright.

"He threw it first! And besides, I was just tossing it back to him!" She looked away. "Not my fault he used his head to catch it." She mumbled, but Will still heard it clearly. He paled further, mouth agape as no sound escaped. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Prime… told me to be here because you were going to be handing stuff out." He regained his composure. She looked over his shoulder and saw that the rest of the children had gathered in the hall, with their mothers and other women walking in as well. The men were nowhere to be found, which was understandable.

They were on duty.

"Right. Let's get this party started!" Before Will could stop her, she had jumped onto Big Blue's bonnet.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

To say that the handing out was a success would have been a slight understatement. It was a roaring success. Why roaring? Because everyone was roaring with laughter at the stories Arabella was telling them.

Most of them revolved around Will's mishaps during his time with her, much to his chagrin. The kids little kids were all excited about the new toys that they had received, the mothers were ecstatic about the beautiful new baby blankets and the women were overall overjoyed. They now had a large amount of scented soaps and fresh toiletries that would last a while among the approximately 50 women that lived on the base. They had quickly chosen one of the women to look after the supplies.

While they were still laughing at one of the stories Arabella had just told them, a young man ran into the hall.

"The hunters are back! The hunters are back!" The women gasped excitedly, before jumping up and racing out into the hallway. Arabella and Will ran after them, keeping up without even breaking a sweat.

They were brought back to the main entrance where a small group of men walked into the bunker, carrying a variety of meats on their backs.

Arabella froze, her face contorted into a wild look of disbelief and disgust. Will saw her stop, and jogged back to her.

"Arabella?" He looked at her unwavering form. "Arabeeeeeellaaaa." He drawled, waving a hand in front of her unresponsive figure. He turned to look back at the hunters and heard a loud thud coming from behind him.

Arabella had passed out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey everyone! Happy new year! And no, I don't care if it is delayed.**

**So here's the next chapter! I'll be honest, I'm still playing around with a couple of options for the story line. **

**EvilPurpleCookiePenkeyMongui n : Glad you like it so far, and yes, coffee is awesome :3 I'm sorry for killing Annabelle, but I didn't want Will to have the perfect family reunion. I wanted to show that his family was just as affected by the war as everyone else was. So :P Sowi.**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy : You'll find out soon enough. And I really couldn't resist giving Ratchet a taste of his own medicine! XD And I try to keep it relatively serious and just show that in serious situations humorous things still occur :) **

**Sweettea1 : I could just see Optimus' face when she made that statement. Just that clear look of shock! XD Glad you still love the story! :3**

**As always, I don't own Transformers or the band Prime Circle. The name just stuck.**

**ONWARDS AND ENJOY! :3**

**(Ps. pwease RnR. I like those. And point out any mistakes you find. I'm not infallible)**

* * *

Birds twittered happily between the moss covered trees that stood as the tall sentinels of the forest. Squirrels made their way over the leaf covered ground, searching for nuts and any other titbits to eat. A breeze danced through the leaves, scattering the bright shafts of light as they fell to the forest floor.

A blurry figure shot past.

The blurry mess ran so fast that the animals could only freeze at the disturbance before noting that there was nothing there. The blur was almost unrecognizable, but it flowed through the landscape as though it had walked its paths for years.

Arabella and Will were on a mission.

_I bet that Will and I can collect more meat than your group of hunters in one hunting trip._

They were facing a group of eight men, the base's hunters.

_You're on. We will have our 'competition' five days from now. Set out at dawn, return at sunset. Person with the better haul wins._

Arabella had been shocked at how badly the animals had been 'harvested', for a lack of a better word. It looked shot to pieces, there was blood dripping on the floor and what had once been a buck stared unblinkingly with glazed eyes at the surrounding people.

Turns out they had been using shot guns for hunting.

Arabella nearly had an aneurism.

She spent the next week getting herself and Will back to the normal sleeping routines. It was just like suffering from jet-lag.

She shut the memory down, forcing her concentration back to the task at hand. Arabella could see the people at the base were struggling and she knew she could not leave with a clear conscience if she did not teach them some ways of taking care of themselves. But first she needed to prove that the people actually did need her skills.

She paused, Will pausing behind her, to examine fresh tracks. She gestured with two fingers in one direction, Will nodding in understanding. They followed the tracks without making a sound.

After some time, they finally found the herd they were looking for. They had happened upon a herd of moose. The animals were larger than the deer they would normally hunt, but they had truly struck lucky with their find.

Arabella pointed at a female that had strayed a little from the main group, another female close by, and the large male moose that could have sported a large set of antlers last year.

Too bad they fall off regularly.

Here was the problem: they had three targets, but only two bows. Arabella slipped another arrow into her hand, ready to refill the bow as soon as the shot was taken. She signaled Will to wait until she had fired to go for male. He nodded.

The bow groaned a little at the tension it was put under, but the animals remained oblivious to the noise. Arabella calmed her breathing, steadied herself, and released the arrow.

It flew true and made its mark, killing the doe instantly. Will's arrow met the male almost at the exact time as the first arrow, hitting the animal in the eye, also killing it instantly, but there was when their luck changed.

Arabella shot again, but missed, and the herd scattered.

"DARN IT! I WAS THIS CLOSE!" She shouted in frustration, jumping upright, before clapping a hand over her mouth. Will was shaking with laughter. She gave him a death glare. "Keep laughing and you're carrying all the meat." Will silenced immediately. "Good." She stepped forward from behind the bushes they had been hiding in. Walking over to their respective kills, they started preparing the animals, cutting the choice pieces and taking whatever else was also of use. They left the hides and the heads.

A shot rang out. Arabella shot up, eyes frantically searching the area as another three shots rang out. She heard a soft rumble and her eyes widened in alarm.

"Will! Stampede!" She shouted as she jumped behind a tree, grabbing whatever could be trampled close to her. Will followed suit, ducking behind a large boulder that lay between some of the trees.

As the rumbling became louder, Arabella notched another arrow into her bow. Will saw what she was doing, and copied her.

She sat, trying to calm her breathing when the first deer came rushing past. Soon the rest of the herd followed, 30 strong. As they ran, Arabella aimed for the back of their heads, simply waiting. She waited until the thundering sound began so quiet down before finally shooting.

A deer collapsed immediately and its brother behind it nimbly jumped over the body before disappearing into the forest. Arabella stood up shakily, adrenalin still running through her system. She looked around. The leftover carcasses had been decimated, but they luckily had already gotten everything they could from the bodies. The deer that Arabella had snagged was the only addition to the field.

"I guess you missed, then." She called out, Will giving her a sour look as he came out from behind the rock.

"That was a very good shot." He conceded, walking over to the deer. Arabella walked closer, the bloody hunting knife already in her hand. She mock curtsied.

"Why thank you, sir." She straightened before starting the messy work. "And we have those idiot hunters to blame. They could have gotten us killed!" She fumed. Will huffed.

"You got that right. I'm amazed that they actually bring some meat home with them. I've been digging out pellets out of my stew since I got here!" Arabella nodded in acknowledgement.

"Same here. Now shut up and help me out here. We will have to split the meat between us. I can't carry both animals."

It was just past noon when they had finished cleaning the carcasses. Loading the meat into their bags, they set off back to the base. They were carrying quite heavily, but were making good time. They made idle chit chat as they walked.

After an hour of walking, Arabella stopped.

"What is it?" Will whispered. Arabella shushed him, looking up into the trees. Will followed her eyes and noticed a loud buzzing sound. His eyes sparkled as he saw the source of the buzzing.

A particularly large beehive was hanging from one of the lower branches of one of the moss covered trees.

"Hey Will." She mused. He hmm'd in response. "The bet was to bring back the better haul, right?" She was smiling slyly. Will caught on, smiling also. "Do you think honey counts?"

"Well," he rubbed a hand against his chin "a 'haul' does not necessarily mean one type of item. It could be a variety of things that can be gathered. So I would say it is fair to say that honey could count part of a 'haul'." Will mused slyly. Arabella's grin widened.

"So what do you say? You want to go for it and whip their asses?" His smiled had a very bright mischievous smirk to it.

"Absolutely."

xxxxxPCxxxxx

After a lot of smoke, a lot of coughing, and a lot of mess, they finally had the majority of the honey comb. They had decided not to take all of it as the bees do actually need something to eat. Sucking on small pieces, they made their way back, jogging where they could.

They were the first group back at the base, taking everything back to the kitchen to be put into containers and weighed. Will and Arabella were exhausted, plodding down on the closest chairs they could find.

Could you believe they had happened across some wild turkeys as well? Well, don't, because they didn't. They heard them, though. They passed out on the chairs the moment they sat down.

A couple of hours later they woke up. It was just before sunset. Arabella yawned as she stretched, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She heard snoring coming from Will. She looked at him with a look of disdain and kicked him. Nothing happened. She tilted her head a little, examining the chair he was sleeping on. She smirked and started tipping the chair. There was a loud crash as the chair tipped too far when Will jolted awake.

Arabella was rolling on the floor laughing.

Will was not amused.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! You could have just woken me like a normal person, you know!" He glared daggers at Arabella.

"But where's the fun in that?" Arabella asked as she sat up. "And you should know by now that I'm not a normal person." She brushed herself off as she stood up. Will opened his mouth to retaliate, but stopped himself, and shrugged as he realized what she said was true. "Come on, I want to see if the others are back yet." She waltzed out of the kitchen, Will following her closely.

They heard shouts of joy coming from the main entrance. They jogged a little faster to get there. Sure enough, the hunters had just arrived, walking proudly at what they had found.

Arabella snorted.

"Ok, it isn't even funny by how much you guys have lost." Arabella stated with crossed arms, resting her weight onto her right leg, a cocky smile gracing her face.

"Oh yeah?" A stocky man wearing thick combat boots, camo pants and a wife beater called out. His black hair had been buzz cut close to his scalp, the rough stubble of his beard covering his face. He had piercing blue eyes and a confident stance. "Wha' makes ya' think tha'?" He had been stalking closer, trying to act intimidating, nearly spitting in her face.

Arabella was not fazed in the slightest.

"Why don't you take it through to the kitchen and see for yourself?" The sweetness of her reply sent shudders down Will's spine. The man's face split with a sly, cocky smile.

"Ya' know, Ah think Ah'm gonna do jus' tha'." He started stalking past her, his posse of hunters close behind. "An' Ah'm pwetty sure tha' we blew you' haul outta wata', eh?" Those around him chuckled. Arabella could not place his strong accent and chose to ignore it.

"Oh, I wouldn't count on it." Arabella called sweetly over her shoulder. She waited for a few moments before turning and following at a leisurely pace, Will in step beside her. They entered the kitchen moments after the hunters had, and were looking at their frozen stances.

"Oh, and did I forget to mention," Arabella started as she leaned against the door frame, crossing her arms and legs whilst a leisure smile planted itself on her face, "that our haul is 100% lead free? And does not consist of," she paused momentarily inspecting their meats "two rats, three badgers, what I assume was once a baby deer and a bowl of Hemlock." She sneered slightly at the poisonous berries.

"And judging by how the berries have been squashed, I think it's safe to assume that the juices have gotten into the meat. So, unless you were planning on killing us all, I would say it's safe to say that you lost." She happily turned and walked out before she saw the looks on their faces.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"So you are asking to take four of our men into your care to train them in the proper ways of hunting?"

Arabella stood stoically on the walkway, legs slightly apart with her hands behind her back with a blank look on her face. It looked like a typical soldier stance, one filled with respect. She had made a request to meet with Optimus Prime and the leaders of the base. It meant that Simon would also be there, but she had treated him with such a cool business-like manner that it made everyone around her behave themselves.

The leaders had been slightly shocked when she had made her request.

"And why should we give you some of our precious resources, Miss Micheals?" Simon spat coldly. Arabella did not even flinch at the tone.

"Your hunters are absolutely appalling. Their use of guns, shotguns, no less, not only give away the fact that there are people in the forests but they also nearly destroy half the animal in the process. Not only that, but the cooks can't pick out every single little piece of buckshot out of the meat. It's a miracle you aren't suffering from lead poisoning yet!" The human leaders squirmed a little.

"Also, the last batch of meat the hunters brought in got bathed in Hemlock juice. If the cooks had prepared that, every single human being on this base would have been dead by now."

The squirming got a little worse.

"I ask to personally train some of your men because I can see this base is in need of skills, skills that I have and can share. I will not only be training them in the proper hunting methods, but I will be teaching them how to make their own bows and arrows, how to stalk in the dark, what plants can be used for medicine, food or weaponry. I will teach them how to make their own soap and candles, how to make leather and clothes from the animals they hunt.

"When I'm done with them you will have an elite squad of hunters that you could even use as spies in the Decepticon bases. And when I return with these men, I will teach your women how to make their own blankets, clothes, scented soaps and candles as well."

"AND WHY SHOULD WE LISTEN TO YOU?!" Simon roared, jumping to his feet. "For all we know, this is some trap! She could kill those men, or teach them to poison the others! What if she decided to turn them over to the Decepticons? I think we should imprison her!"

"Hey DAD!" Arabella shouted, gathering herself into a warrior stance, interrupting everyone who was about to speak. "You got personal problems with me? I say we sort it out right here, right now." She raised her fists in the typical boxer stance.

"Enough!" The Prime's voice rolled over them, strong in authority. "There shall be no fighting. We are to have peace in the ranks if we are to get anything done." Optimus sounded tired, a though this has been a topic that had been sung to tedium already. "Miss Micheals," he turned back to Arabella who had regained her previous stance "pardon my ignorance, but why teach the women?"

Arabella looked up at the large robotic being.

"It will give them a purpose in life other than sitting around, twiddling their thumbs while worrying about their husbands or family who are risking their lives to keep them safe." She paused, turning to the leaders again. "It will give them a chance to feel like women again, to have pretty things to adorn the drab rooms with, to smell nice again, to have pretty things to wrap their new-born babies in. The soap I brought won't last forever, and neither will the blankets or the toys. The women will be able to make something that suits them for a change. It is also a wonderful way to bring the women together again." She got a little more animated.

"Don't you want to come home to a wife that is happy, a family that's smiling? Don't you want food that you don't have to sift through every night?" Her voice turned dark. "Don't you want an elite crew that will be able to make weapons from anything, survive the harshest situations and leave no trace? A group that can train the other soldiers, making the ultimate army that can find out where the enemy's weak points are and hit them where it hurts the most?"

Arabella knew she was not the best with words, but she knew she was getting through to them. The small team of leaders turned in on themselves. She stood a little restless as she awaited their decision.

But she had a feeling they would not refuse.

* * *

**IMPORTANT NOTE!  
**

**I will not be updating on Friday next week. I will be away on camp, and I don't trust my brother on my lappy. So I might either update on Wednesday (which I doubt) or sometime early next week. Sowi.  
**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone! I'm back and will try and keep things brief!**

**I went on an awesome camp and have written most of the next chapter already. Will probably post it soon be be back on track with my chapters. As always, I would like a Beta, or you guys can just point out any mistakes I make.**

**PrimeSPARROW - Yes, he died. No, you didn't miss anything. All will be revealed :)**

**Sweettea1 - Because he is a self-absorbed, egotistical son of a... Lovely lady who didn't raise him properly. And yes, I would not only tip Will's chair, I would probably also douse him with ice water. XD**

**Tai Prime - :3 Well, here it is! :)**

**As always I own nada. Not the band Prime Circle nor Transformers.**

**And please RnR! Enjoy :3**

* * *

The night was silent save the soft whooshing sound of the two trucks speeding on the pitch black roads. The stars were their companions in the night, keeping watched as the moon waned as the time passed. Arabella was driving as fast as she dared, she knew they would have to complete their journey in half the original amount of time.

She was not happy.

_"Why do I need to take an Autobot with me? Why can't I just take a trailer?"_

_"We do not have trailers, there is not enough space in your vehicle alone, and Bulkhead is an experienced war veteran. He shall act as your bodyguard and escort for your journey back. You will need all the protection you can get and the extra carrying space he provides will be invaluable."_

_"But…"_

_"The decision is final. Once he has safely escorted you back to your previous place of residence, he will return post haste. Is that understood?"_

She was furious. She had worked so hard to keep her existence a secret, to be hidden from the world. Now, not only does she now suddenly have four extra occupants, the stupid alien will be able to tell them exactly where she lives!

Well, at least she had not been joking when she had said she had an extra set of caves.

She sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. She had bitten off more than she could chew.

She had been given her four recruits. Four young men, each of them green behind the ears. They had been given basic military training, yes, but… but they all lacked experience.

Timothy Summers was a tall young man with brown hair and brown eyes. He had a strong, angular jaw line and was thin lipped. She pegged him to be approximately 18 years old and had quickly realized that he would rather spend his time in a quiet corner with a book than be out rough-housing with the others.

Kyle Hansen was short, about a head shorter than Arabella was. He was a African American with long dreads. He had a round face and a fiery personality, and easily took offense if anyone regarded his height. He was brash, outspoken, but deep down he was reliable. He was that one reliable person that would always have your back, no matter the threats he made. Arabella guessed his age to be 19

James Nollsworth was a tall, thin and gangly lad with black hair and dark eyes. His drawn, pale face made him look sinister, with eyes that seemed to bore into your soul. He rarely spoke and seemed to observe everything that was going on around him. Arabella had a hard time reading him, and took him to be 23.

Andrew Grosse was a freckled red head with bright green eyes. He was just shorter than Arabella was, but she could see that he would soon outgrow everyone. He had a childlike, innocent face and she realized that he could not have been a day over 16. She had yet to make a proper assessment on his personality, but she had realized something fairly quickly. He had a nervous stutter and butterfingers.

She had her work cut out for her.

Presently she was driving Big Blue with Timothy nodding off beside her. He was trying very hard to stay awake, bless his soul, but she could see his head nodding periodically. The other three were in the large army green truck that was driving right behind her, though she couldn't see anyone driving.

Bulkhead had seemed nonplussed about his new 'mission'. He had taken the orders without complaint, as a soldier should. Arabella couldn't shake the feeling that he was watching her from back there.

Her mind wandered back to the last couple of preparation days before they had left.

_-A few days ago-_

Arabella was sitting on one of the raised platforms against the far wall of the room. She wanted to be left alone, hence the high and lonely spot, but she also wanted to observe the going on's, hence the high and lonely spot. She rested her chin on her crossed fore-arms that were resting on the metal railing.

"Penny for your thoughts?" She threw a glance in the direction of the voice. Coming to settle next to her on the railing was Optimus Prime's holoform. "Or I think that was how the human saying went." He joked, softly smiling. She turned her gaze back to the scurrying people.

"Shouldn't you be in a meeting?" She asked in a monotone voice. She heard him chuckle softly.

"I am."

She looked at him, head tilted as she frowned. She gaped a few times, but words failed her. She huffed.

"I'm not following." She conceded. Optimus' gaze turned to the men and women that were running different tasks down below.

"My physical body is at the meeting. I, however, got bored and found you here." Arabella was quiet, trying to make sense of what he had said. "I've split my processing power. I'm concentrating on the meeting and conversing with you separately but at the same time."

Arabella's mouth split into a slight grin.

"So, you're hearing voices?"

Optimus started laughing. Not loudly, but a laugh none the less. It was a deep chuckle that made her smile. "You could say that." There was a moment of silence between them. "Thank you."

Arabella was confused.

"For what?"

"For making me laugh. It's been a while." They continued to stare down at the busy workers in silence again, lost in their thoughts. Arabella frowned.

"Hey, Opty." Optimus looked at her, the one corner of his mouth turning up in a smile. "Pardon me for being blunt, but why aren't you dead?" His smile disappeared.

"In the… In the years that we have been on earth, we came upon an ancient Cybertronian artifact left here by our ancestors. It is called the Matrix of Leadership." He held out his palm. An image of a dagger-like object flickered right above it. It emitted a faint blue glow. "It is an item of great power, and could tip the scales in any direction." He stared intently at the object. "After we had found it, we placed it into hiding once more to keep it safe from the Decepticons." He closed his hand into a fist and the flickering holographic image faded.

"After Megatron killed me, we went underground. Ratchet slaved for an Earth month to repair my body. They made the dangerous journey to get the Matrix and used it to bring me back to life." He stared into nothingness, lost in thought. Arabella only stated one thing.

"Huh. Neat."

They went back to their prior silence.

"Arabella…" Prime started softly. Arabella looked at him with eyes large in anticipation for his question. "What happened between you and Simon?" Her face became dark and drawn. She was quiet for a moment, collecting her thoughts before she answered.

"It started when I was about eight years old. My parents had been happily married until then. My big, wonderful daddy was serving in the army." Her voice was cool and emotionless. "And then one night, I heard shouting. Turns out he had been cheating on her with some of the women from the base. Mom had found out and confronted him. It was a screaming match. Simon was drunk. He, he slapped my mother, calling her names before storming out of the house. Mom had been a wreck." She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

"The next day he came back, saying sorry and promising to fix things. And it worked, for a while." She became lost in her telling. "But Simon never stopped cheating on her. And Mom knew. Mommy knew, but she stayed. She stayed because she believed they could still save their marriage. Mommy always stayed.

"Simon became manipulative. He started telling Mom she wasn't good enough, that she can't do anything right, that she was cheating on him. She would deny everything, but that would make him mad. He would say that he didn't do anything wrong, that he could do whatever he liked. And he drank. Good Lord he just never stopped drinking. He would be sober when he was on duty, but at home he was always drunk." Tears started rolling over her cheeks. Her hands started to shake, but she didn't notice either.

"He started beating her. He had this wooden baseball bat that he used on her. She always explained away the bruises, saying they were accidents. She did this for years. Then one night…" She faltered, putting her hand over her mouth before taking a shaky breathe and continuing. "He began beating her with the bat again, but he was so angry that he wouldn't stop. I jumped in front of her, trying to get him to stop, but then he turned on me.

"He beat us within an inch of our lives and kicked us out the front door. He didn't want to see his 'slut wife' or 'bastard child' ever again. It was raining that night. Pouring. We both had severe concussions and broken bones. I guess one of the neighbors saw us and took us to the hospital. The police got involved, but couldn't pin anything to the Commander of the army." She practically spat out, venom dripping from her words. "He barely had the decency to divorce my mother. We worked hard, Mom got a job, we found a place to live and we got ourselves back on our feet. I worked hard in school and pulled off straight A's to get a scholarship. I can't even remember what for anymore." She paused, pulling her knees to her chest.

"But the day he kicked us out into the rain, that was the day he died to me. He was no longer Daddy. He was a monster." She pulled her knees closer. Optimus sat, shocked. He had originally had a vague concept of what might have happened, but to hear it completely floored him. He placed his hand on her shoulder, but she shifted away from the contact. He dropped his hand and they were quiet, lost in their thoughts.

-_Present_-

She sighed, rubbing a hand over her face in an attempt to keep herself alert. She was starting to get tired, but she could not swap places with Will anymore. He had stayed back on the base.

Yes, he wanted to come, but Arabella refused so blatantly that he had nearly wet himself. She had stated, quite passionately, that he would be of more use at the base and that his wife needs him more than she did. Well, actually Arabella said if Will died she was pretty sure Sarah will find her and kill her slowly. Will wasn't happy, but eventually relaxed a little when he found out Bulkhead would be traveling with them.

Her green tinted world was starting to shine brighter and she realized dawn was coming. She started slowing down, signalling that she wanted to turn off. Bulkhead followed her lead and pulled over behind her. She got out of the car, stretched and surveyed the area. Bulkhead observed what she was doing, but said nothing. She got back into the car and moved it into the shade underneath a group of tall trees that were standing nearby. She got out and scratched around in the back, finally pulling out the tarpaulin.

She started spreading it over the car when a second set of hands joined her. She looked up and straight into the bright blue eyes of Holographic Bulkhead. He was a large man, a few inches taller than she was with wide shoulders and muscles, lots of rippling muscles. He had quite a wide jaw and a short face, his black hair buzz-cut closely to his skull. He was in the typical army uniform of the olive cargo pants with black combats boots. With that he wore a white vest with dog-tags dangling from his neck.

What truly caught her attention was the amount of scars on his arms and face. They were generally very narrow, but here and there they showed the signs of having once been large gashes. There was no doubt that he was a front-line, war-hardened soldier, but his eyes carried a kind tone. Sure, he could intimidate the pants off you, but she had a feeling that deep down he was a teddy-bear.

A big, scar covered, scary teddy-bear.

"Thanks." She whispered softly as the car vanished into the surrounding darkness.

"You're welcome." He breathed back softly. She tilted her head to his alt form.

"They asleep?" He nodded again, leaning gently against the back of Big Blue while staring at his alt form.

"I kinda feel sorry for them." He stated in a hushed voice with crossed arms. Arabella raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because Will told me what you had put him through. I can't imagine how they're gonna survive." They both shared a soft laugh. "I could just imagine you running behind him with a riding crop and whipping him into shape." Arabella acted mock-outraged.

"Shame on you, Bulkhead! I'm not that primitive! Imagine that! Using a riding crop? What kind of a barbarian do you take me for?" She shook her head before smiling softly, pausing for effect. "I use a taser."

Bulkhead sputtered loudly as he tried to contain his guffaws. He clapped both his hands over his mouth to keep the sound from coming out and ended up rolling on the pine covered ground trying to contain himself. His alt form was rocking as he laughed.

Luckily he didn't wake the slumbering occupants and finally stopped wheezing. He stood up, wiped away the holographic tears and giggled at the image his imagination had gladly offered.

"You should have been a comedian. You're gold!" Arabella blushed slightly.

"Only when I'm tired. Now if you don't mind, I would actually like to get some sleep. We still have a couple of days of trekking to do." Bulkhead nodded and lifted a piece of the tarpaulin so that she could climb back into Big Blue. "Sleep tight." She whispered as she climbed back into the driver's seat. Bulkhead nodded and fizzed out of existence.

::Bulkhead to Optimus.::

::Optimus receiving Bulkhead. Go ahead.::

::We have stopped for the nigh… er, day. We will recharge and then proceed to continue the journey when night falls.::

::Good. Any 'Con activity out there?::

::Negative. It's pretty quiet out.::

::Good.:: Optimus paused for a brief moment. ::Anything else to report?::

::Arabella is a fragging funny femme.:: He sent Optimus a recording of their conversation in a data burst. He waited with baited breath for his boss to finish watching. He heard Optimus chuckle when he replied.

::I will most certainly show Captain Lennox later. I do think it would be a good time to go into recharge as well, Bulkhead.:: Optimus suggested.

::Aye, aye, sir. Bulkhead, over and out.::

::Over and out.:: There was a soft clicking sound as the comm-link clicked off. Bulkhead stayed awake long enough to watch an orange sunrise before he was finally lulled to sleep.


	14. Psych!

Hey guys.

No, this is not a chapter. This is me saying that I will not update the story again until sometime in June, when my next holiday starts. My university classes are so bad you barely have to breathe, much less write fanfiction :P. I am not giving up on this story, but I will need to rewrite the one unposted chapter completely before I continue.

Furthermore, I hope you guys have a good day! :3


	15. Chapter 14

**IT'S A MIRACLE!**

**A new chapter! Turns out 'varsity isn't as bad this year. This is what I have been up to now.**

**I'm not saying that I'm fully back, but there are a few updates somewhere in the future. :)**

**I will be doing comments and notes at the bottom of chapters now. I find these annoying.**

**I do not own Transformers or the band Prime Circle.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud._

The dull thudding sound travelled through the cave walls, resonating softly to a point where it was almost un-heard. It was as constant as a slow metronome and could easily have been mistaken for the sound of a ticking clock, though there was no ticking involved. If one were to find the source of the thudding sound, one would have to travel through some of the darkest tunnels to reach it. Ducking under spider webs and dodging the falling water droplets, one would have eventually have reached a small cavern.

Lit by several small lanterns, one could see an old woollen rug on the floor with what seemed to be an old brown couch sitting in the middle of the floor. On the walls where old paintings that had been carefully preserved and placed on the walls of the room that was an inner sanctum to one Arabella Micheals, who could be found facing one of the dark walls.

_Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud._

Arabella was banging her forehead against the wall.

To say she was frustrated was to put it lightly and politely. The four young men were giving her the hardest time of her life. They were worse than a bunch of spoiled 5 year olds with their constant complaining.

_My bed is too hard._

_My food is too cold._

_The lessons are boring._

_My feet hurt._

_I don't want to do this._

_You're not the boss of me!_

_Why should I?_

She had tried everything she knew. She once withheld their meals to get them to co-operate, but they nearly destroyed the pantry when she had not been looking. She had tried being nice, being strict, everything, but nothing seemed to work.

A month and a half. That's how long they had been terrorising her. To be completely honest, she was surprised she had even lasted that long.

_I wonder if I actually do have a taser._ She mused quietly. There was a lovely bump starting to form on her forehead from her constant banging. They were nearly out of food, she was out of patience and they were about to be put out. Maybe she shoul…

The banging paused abruptly. Her eyes widened as the gears started to turn and an evil grin started to stretch on her lips.

_ I know EXACTLY what I need to do._ Her brain started throwing up lists of what she needed to get done before she could execute her plan.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The past two weeks had been a blast. The four young men could not believe how Arabella had changed. She had come to them the one day with a beautiful apology about how she had been treating them and promised to make it up to them. They could do whatever they wanted as long as they let her do her own thing for at least 5 hours every day.

So they did exactly that. They slept late, did no exercise and left everything a mess that Arabella had to clean up later.

Timothy, however, was starting to get suspicious. Whenever he asked her what she was planning, she would simply reply,

"Nothing whatsoever."

If only they knew she spiked the food that night…

xxxxxPCxxxxx

Timothy woke up with a groan. His head felt clouded and he felt slow. His arms felt like lead weights and he couldn't muster the energy to open his eyes. He tried to shift again but could not move. He groaned again, ro…

He couldn't move.

His awareness jolted, his brain kicking into gear. He could not move his arms in the slightest. His feet and legs were fine, but he realised his fore-arms had been tied behind his back. He opened his eyes and could see nothing. He started to hear the other men moaning as well.

A loud banging not unlike the banging of pots rattled his brain.

"Morning, ladies! Rise and shine! Let's get up and going! It's time for your test!" Arabella's overly cheery voice was dripping with disguised poison and she woke them. Tim froze.

_Test? THEY WERE GOING TO WRITE A TEST?!_

"Now you should have realised by now that you can't move your arms or see! Now that's good. There is, however, nothing wrong with your legs, so we are going to go for a little night hike? How does that sound, ladies?" Tim felt the icy hand of fear grip his spine. This was Arabella's payback for everything that they had done to her since they came two months ago.

This was going to be bad.

Tim felt hands grab his collar.

"Let's get you up" she pulled him upright "and on your feet, ma'am. We have a lot of walking ahead of us." She dragged each and every one of them upright, tying them together so that they can only walk single file.

"This isn't fair!" James called out. "You can't do this to us…" His complaints were interrupted by a solid punch to his mouth. Almost the entire line fell when he did.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you. I don't have the right to do what?" She asked threateningly. James whimpered again, but did not have the wisdom to keep his mouth shut.

"We are U.S. Military soldie… OOF!" He received a punch to the stomach and a boot to where the sun don't shine.

"YOU AREN'T JACK S***, YOU HEAR ME!" The rest of the line was silently quacking in fear. "HERE YOU DON'T HAVE RANK!" She kicked the fallen man again. "YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A SOFT," kick "SPOILED," kick "BRAT THAT CAN'T TAKE SOMEONE SAYING NO!" She kicked him one last time for measure before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him up to his feet again.

"Now," she whispered with a dark tone in her voice "you will show respect and you will listen to everything I say, you got that, maggot?" She seethed. He nodded hastily with a squeaky whimper. "Good. Now lucky for you guys, you have a real life situation where one of your comrades is hurt. Lucky you!"

James had an uncharacteristic suicidal streak in him.

"But… I'm not hurt tha… AAAAH!" His shoulder made a loud popping sound as his shoulder was dislocated.

"You are now." She ignored James' loud gasps of pain. She walked to the front, grabbing the leading rope and pulled. "Start walking! We've got to get moving fast! You don't want to lose any time on your test, now, do ya?" The line was quiet. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" She shouted brutally.

"No ma'am!"

"Good. Now MARCH!"

xxxxxPCxxxxx

She led them into the night. The evening was warm but had that slight chilly bite in the wind. All that the group would have was the rope they were tied with and only one knife. In the time that she had had off, she had blocked every possible entrance into the caves that they could know about. She had also hunted twice that had given her enough food to last two weeks if she blocked herself in.

She was leading them out of the caves, making sure to add unnecessary twists and turns to disorientate them. James, who was in back of the line, was complaining loudly as they walked. Another quick punch to the mouth shut him up. Progress was slow with the blind-folded people that would trip regularly.

12 hours of trekking through the thick and disorientating forest later, she stopped, tying the guiding rope to the branch of one of the trees. She paused the hike long enough to give everyone a drink of water before continuing the walk again. It was close to sunset again when she stopped the line again.

"Alright ladies, we're here. Feel free to sit down." They all remained standing. "No? Suit yourselves then." She leaned against the skeleton of a fallen tree. "Alright, ladies. This exercise is a test to see how much any of you have actually learnt over the past two months that you've been with me. It's quite simple really. You guys have to find your way back to the caves in the morning." She paused, before continuing in a whiny voice.

"But ma'am, that sounds so simple!" She laughed coldly. "Sure, it is. I have left you maggots small intermittent clues to guide you back, oh, and one of you guys is carrying a knife, because I'm nice, but that's not really true now, is it?" She leaned forward, talking in a deadly whisper. "I've blocked all possible entrances except for one. This is a test to see how long it takes you back to the caves. Here's the catch: I'm your enemy here." The group shuddered through their shivers.

"I'm going back to my caves, and get some of my supplies. From there I'm coming back to this exact spot and I'm tracking you. If you get caught, I will make you walk all the way back to Smithers, got it?" The group nodded, terrified. "Good. Now let's see: It's sunset now. I will be back in 20 hours. I'd better not catch you here." She started a brisk jog back to the caves.

_'I wonder if I haven't just sent them to their graves.'_

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"S***, s***, s***!" Andrew started complaining. "Dude, we are s-so totally screwed! Ah, man! I'm never g-g-gonna see my m-mom again…"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!" Kyle shouted, frustrated. "Before I kick your whiny ass. Yo', Timmy boy, you gots any ideas?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" He snapped. "We need to get rid of these blind-folds, man." He started rubbing his head on his shoulder, trying to rub the slip of fabric off. "Darn it! No luck. Andy, you're in front of me, right?"

"Uh, I thu-think s-so!" The teen stuttered.

"I'm going to lean against you. I'm going to try and get your blindfold off."

"Uh, ok?" He remained silent as Timothy leaned forward. "DUDE! S-STOP TRYING TO M-MAKE OUT WU-WITH THE BA-BACK OF MY HEAD!"

Kyle burst out into giggles.

"Well, my hands are tied and I can't see jack all! So bear with it and direct me to the stupid blind-fold."

"Timmy and Andy, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I…"

"Shut up, Kyle!" All three shouted at the same time. They finally got the blind-fold off and after a lot of squirming, everyone could see again.

"Darn, she really pulled a number on these ropes. I can barely move." Timothy complained.

"Those rocks look pretty sharp." James pointed out. There was an outcropping of rocks close to them. They had jutting point like sharp spires and did indeed look very sharp.

"Alright everyone, shuffle together over to those rocks. Let's see if we can cut the ropes."

xxxxxPCxxxxx

After a lot of shuffling, shouting and grinding later, they were loose. They had managed to pop James' arm back into its socket, found the knife and managed to salvage most of the rope. The exhausted crew made themselves comfortable and passed out.

They woke early the next morning, trying to find something to eat to no avail.

"Guys? You mi-might want to chu-check this out!" Andrew had found a small scroll wrapped with a bright red string. It was no bigger than his pinkie. He unravelled the tiny scroll and squinted to read it.

_Find out where East is._

_Don't go that way._

"Yo', stop hoggin' the paper man!" Kyle grabbed it out his hands. Just as he finished reading it, Timothy yanked it out of his. "Hey, what gives, man?"

"If the paper says we shouldn't go East, it would mean she had led us East during the hike. We will need to travel back West to find her."

"Well, duh, but is it just West that we have to go?" They all looked at James. "I mean, are we going North-West, West, or South West. Hell, she could have just been walking South with us the entire time." They all nodded in agreement.

"We can't know for sure which way we went."

"Yo, man, can't we jus' track ou' footsteps back da' same way we came?"

"What do you think I've been trying the whole morning?!" Timothy snapped. "The pine needles are too thick to allow us to leave tracks and I don't recognise any of our landmarks!"

"Ah, man. We a-are totally s-screwed."

xxxxxPCxxxxx

Arabella was smiling. She got home three hours after leaving them out there and had had simply passed out on her bed. They really weren't that far from the caves, quite the opposite, in fact. She had led them once around the outside of all the caves before she had taken them off into the one special direction.

She tried to do the math: It was about 9 o'clock when she had woken them up. They had travelled for 12 hours, which would have made it 9 in the morning when they had taken the break. She had walked them for another 10 hours, making it about 7 o'clock when she had dropped them off. The trip around the area where all here caves were had taken them 15 hours, so they had only walked away from the caves for seven hours.

Taking into account that they were tired, hungry, couldn't see properly and tripped a lot, she reduced the amount of time they needed to get back by half.

They were less than four hours of walking away from the caves, not the full day journey they had in mind.

If they weren't back by sunset the next day, then she would go looking for them.

But until they returned, she had some serious work to get done. After a few hours of much deserved sleep, she got up with a strong light of determination in her eyes.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

It was late afternoon when she heard the footsteps. There were several distinguishable death threats murmured from mouths with sour ideals. Arabella had allowed herself the small luxury of delving into a romantic novel while they had been away.

As she lay on her bed, back against the wall with her legs crossed, she was the picture of rest and relaxation. If one were to take a moment, one would have made the realisation that the crafting table had been cleaned and the weapons wall was bare. All blunt objects were out of sight and the sharp ones were out of the question too.

The bedraggled group of soldiers stumbled into the main cavern, their faces dark with fury. They did not utter a single word as they stopped shortly after walking through the doorway. Arabella did not look up from her book.

"I see you've made it back in one piece," nonchalance dripping from her tone, "and before I was about to leave. Well done." She picked up a dry-pressed leaf and slid it in-between the ages of the worn book, placing it beside her. As she shifted, the group took notice of the shotgun on her lap.

It was, no doubt, loaded.

"Now I hope I have your attention. I invited you into my home, offered to teach you valuable skills and you threw it back in my face." She spat the last words as her anger built slowly and steadily.

"I've provided you with food you did not work for, shelter you did not work for, BEDS you did NOT work for, for what? FOR WHAT?!" Her face had turned into a fierce scowl, her cheeks scarlet and her nostrils flared.

"You DESTROYED my provisions, insulted my hospitality and worst of all? WORST of all you insulted my intelligence!" She jumped off the bed, shoulders hunched with the pump action shotgun held firmly in her hands. She walked over until she was nearly right in front of them, her voice a dark and deadly whisper.

"Now, no more mister Nice Guy. You will listen to and obey every single word I say or else I will personally escort you to the Decepticon bases and don't think for a moment I don't know where they are. Understood?"

Andrew was nearly wetting his pants in fear in the back of the group. Kyle and Timothy's anger had been steadily replaced by fear and they quickly and briefly nodded in understanding. Andrew was suddenly a bobble-head.

And James? He stared at Arabella with such hate you could bottle the air to sell as pesticide and Arabella noticed. She swung the business end of the shotgun to point at his face.

"Does Megatron miss his favourite Pretender yet, Decepticon?" The rest of the group took several steps away from James, who showed a brief flurry of emotion, but hid it again under a near flawless mask of indifference. "Didn't think I would realise, did ya'? Your shoulder was way to sharp and bony for it to be human, you dumb ass."

James' head was no more before the Pretender could even hiss. The robotic body started to separate as it fell to try and transform but stopped midway. The headless body fell to its knees before collapsing further. She shot it once more in the midsection, blowing it into two pieces.

"Guys, we are blowing this joint. Grab what's left of James. I don't want my favourite caves blown up just yet. Let's see if you ladies can keep up!"

They ran through the Western tunnels, stopping briefly at the opening of the waterfall to toss the body out. Grabbing the pre-packed backpacks that Arabella had prepared, she lit four torches.

"Careful, they can get a little hot."

They ran down one of the side tunnels with little other than Arabella's instinct and the flickering torches. Soon they came to a cave that had a thick veil of vines over the opening. Waiting there, were two heavy duty ATVs, both carrying a small trailer with some essential items. Notching the burning torches onto hooks in the walls, Andrew and Kyle took the backpack and secured them unto the smaller front baskets of the ATVs. Timothy and Arabella grabbed two Jerri cans of fuel and quickly filled the tanks, securing the extra tanks onto the sides.

"Do any of you boys know how to drive one of these?" Andrew nodded in the affirmative. "Alright. I'll take the lead. Kyle, you can ride with me. Andrew, I'll need you to stay close. I'm gonna be driving as fast as I can push these. We will be driving without the headlights to avoid attracting attention. Thank God for the full moon. Understood?" The men nodded. "Good. Grab a helmet and let's get moving!"

The engines roared to life as the passengers secured themselves to the vehicles. Arabella briefly looked over her shoulder to Andrew, who gave her a quick thumbs up. She nodded and floored the gas, nearly losing Kyle in the process. They flew through the milky darkness, the woods swallowing the noise as they fled.

* * *

**IronEclipse - Thanks for saying my scribbles are nice to read :3 It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :3**

**Sunstreaker's Squishy - ... Should I be questioning your loyalty? (Mock accusing glare) I will turn you in, you know! Nothing will stop me from brainwashin... converting you fully to the Autobot cause!**

**Sweettea1 - I originally considered saying 'cattleprod', but those would probably electrocute you. And this is the Second time Opti is resurrected. I was referring to the happenings of the third film when I mentioned 'Chicago' and that whole scene with the reporter in the first chapter. :)**

**Teddy - Thank you! :3**


	16. Chapter 15

At the Autobot base the air was thick with a tenseness that had everyone on edge. There had been recorded Decepticon activity in the area and it was not looking good. All the Autobots were prepared to attack and defend the base at a moment's notice, but truly, they were out-powered and out manned. Though the base was busy, it was eerily silent; words were only spoken when they were needed.

William was at the end of his tether. He just did not know what to do anymore. They had no way of positively knowing what the Decepticons were planning. He walked past the posted guards into his small office, locking the door behind him to try and get a few minutes of peace.

The office was drab and grey. There was a desk, a chair and a computer, but not much else. There was a filing cabinet in the one corner with one extra chair for whoever needed to see him. He dropped into the chair, slouching. He closed his eyes.

It has been eight months since he had last seen Arabella. He wondered how the boys were doing and realised that he missed her; his one close friend.

He sighed deeply, the bags underneath his eyes dark. They needed Arabella and those boys. They needed intel. they could provide and they needed it bad. He had no idea how long they would be able to hold out now and the hunter's efforts just weren't cutting it anymore. He rubbed his temples, trying to relieve the tension.

"Arabella, I need your help."

He sighed deeply and noticed there was a bright yellow post-it note stuck to the screen of the monitor.

_Kathlyn Lake. Pier 7. See you there. ;)_

His brow furrowed in confusion. He sat, contemplating the note for a while, before finally making up his mind. He punched the bright red button of the mike of the private intercom system.

"Prime, get ready to move out. We've got to go and meet a few friends…"

xxxxxPCxxxxx

"_Four organic signatures detected. Orders?"_

"Investigate. Do not make contact until the identities have been confirmed. Proceed with caution, over."

"_Roger."_

There were silenced footsteps in the forest as the small group of soldiers crept forward with agonizing slowness. The edge of the forest met with a stony beach that finally led to the cool water. The sun was high and it was pretty warm for the mid-Autumn day. There were the bubbly sounds of laughter and splashing water. Looking at the source, there were a few colourful camping chairs set up underneath a large beach umbrella. There was a faded red cooler-box in the shade of the umbrella, next to one of the chairs. There were a few empty beer bottles here and there, with what looked to be a packed picnic lunch.

Over to the side Red, the large truck, stood tall and proud and laden with supplies. There were cool-boxes, and tool boxes, and bags and boxes and barrels of fuel and water. There were also a couple of tents pitched up close-by under the shade of the trees, with mattresses and sleeping bags rolled out neatly with an extra blanket on the side. Behind the tents was the beat up, rusty old trailer that they had used to haul everything cross country.

Over by the edge of the water, Arabella and Kyle stood ankle deep in the water, with their pants rolled up to their knees, skipping smooth stones over the surface of the water. Timothy was sitting in the shade of the umbrella, reading a book Arabella had given him a while back, while Andrew was lying shirtless on a towel, with shorts and large sunglasses, trying to 'tan', as Arabella had called it. He wasn't achieving much in the Autumn sun. He was sitting partially upright, watching the stone skipping competition, adding his own two cents along with his cheers.

"…five, six, SEVEN! I count seven hops!"

"No way, that was only six!"

"Nu uh! Andy! Tell him I'm right."

"Sorry Kyle, that was seven skips."

"Hah! I win! Hey, Timo! Come join us!"

"No thanks. Quite comfy right here."

"Aw, you spoilsport." She looked past him and into the forest. "Hey! Badly hidden soldiers! Care to join us for a beer?" Suddenly the forest was alive with voices.

"What?! She knew we were here?!"

"I DO NOW!" She shouted back. She laughed as a loud curse was heard, as well as a loud slap, followed with several other statements.

"Beer?! Did she say BEER?!"

"How did she know?"

"Who cares. BEER!"

"The commander said we are to stay here until further orders. Commander Lennox? Um… Commander Lennox?"

Said Commander was already out of the forest and walking slowly across the beach, slack jawed and speechless, except for the weird blubbing noises he was making.

"Bu… Wha… Ho… Decepticons?" He finally regained clarity. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! There are Decepticons out here!" Arabella frowned, looking at her small crew.

"What? Here? I don't see any. Do you see any, Andy?"

Andrew was lying leisurely on his blanket. "Nope. No Decepticons here. Isn't he maybe referring to all those sensors we rigged?" The group let out a collective snort of giggles.

"Now that, was fun; made sneaking into base so much more worthwhile. Hey Tim, how many times did you get in and out?"

"Pfft. Three."

"Also three." Kyle piped up, taking a swig from the bottle.

"Five times here, b*****. OW!" Andrew curled over, hands on his stomach.

"Alright, you know the drill. 20 push-ups for swearing." Andrew groaned. "MOVE IT!" In the background Kyle scoffed as Andrew rolled over, enthusiastically pumping himself off the ground.

"Only 20? Hey, man, you goin' soft on us o' som'thin'?" His smirk was wiped off his face by the dark glare he received from Arabella.

"Disrespect for a superior. 50 push-ups." Kyle blanched, but when he saw Arabella's stiff posture, he sprinted to a good spot and dropped, determined to finish as quickly as possible.

"Tsk. You'd think they'd learn from the first 40 times they did that." Timothy shook his head as Andrew stood up, dusting the dirt from his hands. "Say, boss, how many times did you get in?"

"Seven times." Andrew and Timothy whistled loudly and Andy gave her a high-five. Kyle stopped and turned his head.

"Nicely done, boss!"

"Oi! I only counted 10 push-ups, missy. Get moving!" Kyle continued with renewed vigour.

Will was nearly on the edge of fainting.

"You… You snuck in… and out… of the Autobot base… with extra security, SEVEN TIMES!?"

Arabella shrugged.

"Well, technically, if you add it all up, it's 18 times, but yeah, whatever floats your boat. Hey Tim, toss me another beer." Without his gaze leaving the book, he reached over the side of the chair, firmly grasped the neck of a bottle and tossed it to her.

She caught it, and promptly threw it back. He caught the bottle without even looking at it.

"I said a beer, not an empty beer bottle, Mister Smartypants."

Timothy finally made eye contact with her and stuck his tongue out.

"Where did you get the beer?" Will finally managed.

"Stole it from my Dad." Arabella took a deep swig from the bottle she had swiped from Kyle, earning an indignant 'hey!' from the African American man, who promptly crossed his arms with a pout.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" A certain Mister Clarkson finally emerged from the shadows, outraged.

"Oh, hey, Daddyo. I thought it was unfair of you to make these in secret and not to share. Oh, yeah, right. That was the other part of the assignment. To show that these guys have completed their training, they were to infiltrate your base, borrow a few items and make it out undetected. Worked brilliantly, doncha think?"

Simon was fuming in silence. William finally did a headcount of the people present.

"Wait, where's James?"

Arabella coughed a little mid swallow. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Uh, who?"

"James? James Nollsworth?" A little light bulb flickered on above her head.

"Oooh, THAT James. Yeah, he wasn't physically fit to continue the training." The three young men burst out laughing.

"You could say his performance, 'fell to pieces'." Andrew giggled.

"Naw man, he just couldn't handle tha' 'impact' of her, 'explosive' training." The giggles turned into laugher.

"Or, or, he just couldn't, 'keep himself together'." The guys were howling with laughter. The tears were running down their faces. Will was not sure he wanted to know what they were implying. Arabella recovered quickly.

"Well, what do you expect? Pretender versus shotgun. Shotgun wins."

"SHOTGUN TO THE HEART!" Timothy sang out and promptly fell out of his chair. Right about now, the group was not even able to breathe anymore. The tears were streaming down their faces, their stomachs were aching and they were just twitching on the ground, making these absurd little gasping sounds whenever they inhaled.

Will was white as a sheet. All the soldiers hidden among the trees were frozen and Simon looked like he was apart to have an aneurism. His fury finally reared its ugly head.

"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU SHOT AND KILLED A SOLDIER FROM _**MY**_ BASE?!" Arabella's laughter died down and the smile on her face turned to a smirk.

"You're asking me whether or not **_I_** killed one of **_your_** soldiers? So, you are admitting to the fact that, not only did you know James was a Decepticon Pretender, but that you are also in league with the Decepticons, thus knowingly and willingly endangered not only your soldiers, but also the civilians you were in charge of protecting?" She turned, arms wide. "Well, will you lookit' that, boys. My dad really is a pit spawned devil."

Simon was blanched, but wore a dark scowl. He remained silent, but his nostrils were flared and his hands were in tight fists.

"See? No denial means confirmation!" Her smile disappeared. "Will, do as you wish."

The ex-commander was cuffed in seconds, gagged and blindfolded. Four soldiers escorted him away to be interrogated. The rest stood in awe of what had just occurred.

"Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. Oi! Frozen statues!" The soldiers' heads turned to her as one. "Get a fire started! We have some celebrating to do! Andrew! Timothy! You're in charge of getting three fires going! Kyle! You're with me. Lennox! Get your men in gear. We have a feast to get going. Let's move it, ladies!"

xxxxxPCxxxxx

They had six moose carcasses they had to barbeque on a spit. They had been well seasoned with local and wild herbs and the roasting meat was making the men's mouths water. When the first three were taken off the fire, they were immediately taken to the base, along with a huge pot of vegetable stew that they had managed to cook up. They were back a short while later for the other two and most of the last one, while the rest remained there for the soldiers that had come to feast on.

There were jokes and laughter, with beers going around and stories told. Every now and then they would strike up a song to which everyone would be dancing.

"'Bella, how did you pull this off?"

"Me? I didn't do anything. This was all those three boys over there. I put them through hell, but they did great." She took another swig from the bottle of water she was now drinking. Will sat next to her, also with a bottle of water.

"If I remember correctly, Andrew had a stutter."

"He did. He had a nervous stutter. I taught him to have self-confidence and self-esteem; he learnt to use it and BAM! Stutter gone."

"Wow, that's amazing." He sat in silence for a moment, staring at the bright stars that had come to shine above them. "So, what now?"

"Well, now we enjoy the evening, get the really drunk people home safe…" Will face palmed beside her.

"No, I meant, in the long run?"

"What I thought was going to happen now is that you can use those three on your missions to get all that intelligence that you need. I'll stick around, working with the women in the mornings. Then I can alternate the afternoons between training another elite team and training your hunters, who, if I might say, have been doing a DISMAL job as of late."

Will couldn't help but wince in agreement. Arabella took a swig of water from the bottle.

"I'd just need to clear the training with the top dogs, but I don't think it will be denied." He was quiet for a moment. "Say, you said that you guys had to steal…"

"Borrow."

"_Steal_, items from the base." Arabella glared at him. "So, what did you take?"

Arabella was silent, but had large sly smirk on her face, her eyes twinkling. Will was immediately worried.

"Arabella? Bella?!" She jumped up and bellowed as loudly as she could.

"HEY EVERYBODY! GUESS HOW COMMANDER LENNOX DOES 'IT'?!" Everyone stared at her as Will blanched.

"No, Arabella, noooooo!" She whipped a particular item out of her pocket and held it high in the air, laughing as she dodged Will who was trying to get it back. The remaining soldiers whooped loudly as they recognized the scandalous toy. When the remaining bots finally figured out what they item was for, most of them shifted awkwardly while Optimus Prime mentally thumbed up the item.

"Tim! Catch!" She tossed the item over the fire to the quiet man, who laughed.

"So fluffy!" He tossed it over to Kyle, who twirled it around his finger a few times and adopted a girly shriek.

"SO PINK!" He whipped it over Andy, who struck a sexy pose.

"So kinky!" The soldiers were canning themselves as Will blushed bright red. Andrew tossed it back to Arabella, who handed it back to Will. He took it, stuffing it into his pants pocket.

"Hey man, we really didn't need to know that, but hey, if that's what turns you on…"

"Shut up, Epps." Will bit at him, hands in his pockets as he walked back to get his bottle of water. Epps was determined to have the last word.

"Whatever you say, _Officer_." The soldiers let out whoops of laughter again as Will continued to stomp away. Arabella was just close enough to hear him mumble something along the lines of:

'_So _that's _where it went.'_

Arabella chuckled as she looked at the group of soldiers. Her chuckle simmered down to a lingering smile as she looked around her. She slowly turned, gazing out over the lake, staring at the reflection of the bright moon on the shimmery surface. She heard the footsteps of a tall individual behind her, but didn't turn to acknowledge the man.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"I need to see Ratchet in the morning."

Optimus paused. He had not expected that reply, but he simply shrugged, coming to stand next to her. He also gazed out over the waters, but finally tilted his head up to look at the stars.

"You have a beautiful planet." He whispered softly. Arabella was silent for a long time, listening to everything around her.

"It is." She finally conceded. "And to think that back in the day, few actually thought that."

Optimus was silent. He remembered when the children were so focused on staying inside and playing on the computers, when everyone was 'too busy.' He sighed.

"I'm sor…"

"Don't."

Optimus was staggered. "But…"

"Just don't, ok?" He opened his mouth again, but was swiftly cut off as she turned to face him. "I don't want to hear it! The only reason, the **only** reason I'm here is because I'm helping to clean up your mistakes. Got it?"

Optimus stood frozen at the amount of ice and contempt that had been in those words; his processors reeling at the statements, leaving him gaping like a fish.

She glared at him a few moments longer before abruptly turning and walking away, grumbling under her breathe, leaving one confused mech that was trying to make sense of the strange woman.

* * *

**Hey guys! New chappie! It might seen a little of here at the end, but there is reason for it. :3 there will be a few time jumps happening in the future, (coz I'm lazy like that) and I may or may not end the story soon. I haven't decided yet.**

**Katrina466- Thanks! I try to write something that I would like to read, or something different. I must admit, I am slightly tired of the movie rewrites, no offense to the people who do. :3 Glad you like it :D**

**KillStrikePrime-PhoenixNova - :D Well, I gladly oblige with this new chapter! :) Glad you like it! :D**

**Sweetea1 - I know, right? I originally thought of making her Dad the pretender, but then it didn't really work out nicely. :P Glad you still like my story! :)**

**Please review! I like it when you do! :3 3**


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